The Gap
by Jomatto
Summary: When we can't see beyond the darkness, our minds fill in the gaps, and horror is born.
1. Don't Look

**Don't Look**

Kairi's footsteps were quick but steady.

She moved with purpose, guided by a single mission: search and retrieval. Soft auburn hair bounced with each step as she ran up the stairs to the second story. She breezed through the hall, passing by open windows with her shadow gliding across the lockers, until her violet eyes locked onto the classroom where she would find her target: Sora.

Sora was a good friend of hers—her best friend even, if only because of geographical convenience. They were next-door neighbors and routinely walked home together. She hardly left school without him, but that was mainly because of Kairi's mom. Her mother held irrational fears that her daughter might fall prey to random acts of kidnap, rape, murder, or all three, so Sora was enlisted to keep a close eye on her. Kairi didn't mind but she was a little irked that she was put on a leash, even one as accommodating as Sora. She was forced to wait for him at the end of school before coming home.

He was usually punctual, but something was off about him this week. On Monday, he arrived ten minutes late; on Tuesday, he was twenty minutes late; and today, it was Wednesday. She had waited in front of the school for thirty minutes but he never showed. He had a lot of explaining to do.

She approached Sora's last period class, grabbed the door, and pushed it open to find him drooling at his desk. Only he could sleep through the thunderous footfalls, excited chatter, and loud bells that signaled the end of school every day.

Brunet spikes spilled messily over the desktop and his baby cheeks, normally round, were flat against the desk surface. His eyelashes fluttered lightly, and she wondered what kind of dreams he was having. His serene face laid in stark contrast to her miffed one. She laid a hand on his shoulder, squeezed it hard, and gave him a hard shove. He jolted awake, slamming his back into the chair, and looked up at Kairi in shock.

"Rise and shine you lazy bum," she greeted, giggling at his reaction.

He blinked groggily until her face clearly came into view. He let out a sigh of relief. "I am so glad to see your face."

She raised an eyebrow. The reaction wasn't quite what she was expecting. She wanted more anger and indignity, not relief. "Did you have a nightmare or something?"

He made a frightful frown. "No, I just woke up in one."

She was about to retort to his puzzling statement but his tired eyes stopped her. Heavy bags dragged the skin down as if his eyeballs were melting. No longer flat against the desk, his cheeks were surprisingly gaunt. She didn't realize how terrible he looked. His sleeping serenity disappeared, and in its place was immense fatigue.

"Are you okay?" she asked worriedly.

His eyes darted around nervously before he answered, "Can I tell you something?"

"Of course." What was wrong with him?

He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. His face held heavy exhaustion. "I think I'm going crazy."

"I think we all do sometimes." She chuckled.

His dark expression didn't waver. "That's not it. I really do think that I'm losing my grip on reality. I might be…hallucinating," he admitted.

"What do you mean?" She didn't like where this conversation was going. He wasn't on drugs, was he? Or maybe he was suffering from insomnia?

He turned his head to look outside the window and stayed silent for a couple moments to gather his thoughts. After shaking his head several times, he finally turned around. "It all started a couple days ago, with the release of Final Fantasy XIII-2." That was starting to explain things. He probably stayed up too late playing the game. "You know me; I like to plow through games once I get them. I went on a binge and stayed up late on Sunday night. I didn't even realize what time it was until I saw the time stamp on my save file. It was 1:00 in the morning. Sometimes, a game has you hooked and you can't put it down, but everybody has their limits—including me. I was starting to feel crappy, my eyes were starting to hurt, I had this bad headache, and my body was sore. The whole day was starting to catch up to me.

"It didn't help when we got that writing assignment for the weekend. What kind of teacher does? I was planning on spending quality time alone with the game, but no, the frickin' teacher had to assign an essay due on Monday. What the hell? My plan was to play the game and work on the paper at night, but that didn't work out for me. I wasn't able to turn it in on time. I got half-credit for turning it in yesterday, but whatever.

"Anyways, that was when things were starting to get a little weird. You ever catch something out of the corner of your eye but you turn your head only to see nothing? Most of the time, it's something dumb, like a shadow from a tree outside or your own reflection. I kept thinking I was seeing something but every time I turned around—it turned out to be nothing.

"I tried to ignore it, but I swore I saw something flicker on my window. When I take a look, I find out it's just my reflection. I play with the lights off at night, so the TV's the only source of light. It had me pretty well lit. I assumed I was catching my own reflection. I stared at the window and moved my arms around until I was satisfied that it was only me. I went back to playing for a couple more minutes but I saw that flicker again. I checked it out and it was the same deal, just my reflection.

"That's when I started to get the chills, like how all your hair stands up and goose bumps start popping up like a bad rash. It felt like somebody was watching me, and it was definitely coming from the window. It didn't help that it was pitch black outside. I hate it when it's completely dark. It makes my head go nuts, like I'm expecting something horrible to pop out.

"I got up to the window and looked outside to make sure that there wasn't anything sneaking around. All I saw was the tree between our houses and the street. I'm on the second story, and there aren't any footholds, so it wasn't like anybody could spy on me. I shut the blinds and turned on the lights. It made me feel a little better. It was getting late and I had school the next day, so I turned off the TV and the game. For a split second, I thought I saw something behind me in the TV screen as it died out, but as soon as I turned around, there was nothing. My imagination was starting to get the better of me. I went for a bathroom break and kept the door to my room open a crack so the light could leak out into the hallway.

"I got in and did my business, but I was feeling cold. I washed my hands with warm water. I looked up at the mirror and jumped. I definitely saw something behind me but it disappeared. Was I really seeing things? I tried to shake it off and laugh at how dumb I was acting. I didn't move and just stood there, staring at that spot behind me, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did. I started shivering. I dried my hands and returned to my room. Even if I couldn't see it, I could feel _something_ behind me. I ran into my room and shut the door. I knew I was being paranoid, but still, once you start thinking that something's there, it might as well be.

"I did a hack job on the homework. I couldn't focus though. Things were _really_ quiet. The only sound was my pen and breathing. I sat there, training my ears for the slightest sound. I heard a rustle and turned around immediately. I watched the room for the slightest movement, a twitch, anything. Then I heard it again. It was coming from outside. I slowly made my way to the window and prayed like hell that there wasn't going to be a serial killer staring back. I opened the blinds and scared the crap out of myself with my own reflection. It turns out; the rustling came from the tree outside.

"But I still felt like...someone was watching me. I searched the room for anything suspicious, like a hidden camera or something, but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find anything. Whatever it was, it was hovering just outside the edge of my consciousness. At this point, I'm like, 'screw it, I'm going to sleep.'

"I turned off the lights, got into bed, and closed my eyes. Eventually, I fell asleep, but it was on and off—I kept waking up and going back to sleep. After I woke up for the sixth time, I tried to see what time it was but I couldn't find the clock—which was weird, because it's pretty bright in the dark. Without it, the room is completely black, especially when I close the blinds. That's when I saw it.

"In the furthest corner of the room was something faint. My eyes were blurry at first, but the more I focused, the more I wish I hadn't. I thought it was moonlight leaking through the blinds but it wasn't. There was no moon that night. When I finally saw what it was, I almost screamed. It was the most horrifying thing I had ever seen. I couldn't—just thinking about it—what I saw—it was this—this _face_.

"It was pale and gray, floating in the corner. It blended in with the wall, blurry like...it's out of focus or smudged. It was oval-shaped, with no body—just a face. Two pin holes, as if somebody punctured the skin, were where the eyes were supposed to be. They were deep as black holes, almost as if...they were sucking me in. And there was a thin line for the mouth. No lips, just a depression, a flap, like a slit.

"The face was just there, staring and watching me the entire time. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't blink, I couldn't think. I was _scared._ I couldn't stop my body from shaking. What the hell was it? What did it want? Why was it there? Why wouldn't it go away? I clenched my eyes shut and hoped that it would disappear.

"I opened my eyes again and it was even closer this time. I didn't hear anything. As a matter of fact, I couldn't hear _anything_. Not myself, not my breath, not even my own heartbeat. The only thing I could sense was the face—it was there, gazing into me. I couldn't forget the face. It was like a mask made out of gray skin. Its eyes stared impassively, absorbing my being, drawing me closer to death—or something even worse.

"I turned over and shut my eyes. I was not going to look back. I couldn't hear anything except for my own silent screams. I tried to fill my head with self-assurances; I was trying to tell myself that everything was fine but… I felt it. On my neck, a frigid air. It was _breathing_ on me. Have you ever felt terror so strong that it paralyzed you? My brain shut down, my mind went blank, and I…I think I blacked out.

"The next thing I know, I see sunlight peeking through the blinds. I got up immediately and looked around. To my relief, there was nothing. I chalked it up to a bad nightmare. I opened the blinds to let the sun in but the _face_ was staring right at me. I screamed and my legs turned into jelly. I scrambled on the floor and tried to crawl away. I looked at the window again. It was gone. It didn't make me feel any better though. I just wanted to get the hell out of there. I ran downstairs and saw my mom cooking breakfast in the kitchen. She asked me if I was okay. I mean, I just screamed and ran downstairs, so my mom was a _little_ worried. I lied to her and said yes. It couldn't have been real. I must've been hallucinating—I had to be. It was just an overworked mind fatigued from too much gaming. That's what I told myself.

"I thought that was just the end of it, but I'm convinced now. I'm either slowly going crazy, or something's haunting me. For the past couple of days, whenever I'm alone, I would catch that flicker out of the corner of my eye. Sometimes I see nothing, but other times… I see it behind me in the mirror. Any reflection would do. I would see it in the water, in empty homes, and even your bedroom window. It was always just the _face_. No limbs, no body—only a face.

"This _face_ has been following me, stalking me, and driving me insane. I can't sleep at night. I leave the lights and the TV on and close the blinds, but I can always feel its eye on me. It's probably looking at me right now. I noticed something about it though… It would only show up when I was alone. As long as I'm with somebody, it won't appear. That's why I've been sleeping in class. It's the only time it would leave me alone, and I can actually sleep. It's only when I sleep that I can escape this nightmare." He was shaking as he finished the story.

She didn't know what to say. She never saw him so agitated before, so..._terrified_. His fear seemed genuine. "Sora…I—"

His pupils shifted and he froze.

"What is it?" she said nervously.

He didn't reply as he stared at the window behind her in wide-eyed horror.

She couldn't help but feel that something was boring into her back. She turned her head slowly and saw it.

It was the _face_.

It was faint but it was exactly how he described it.

She felt something grab her and she screamed.

"Kairi!"

"Let go! Let go!" She threw the hands off and ran for the door.

"Kairi! Wait up!"

She ignored his pleas to stop and continued sprinting through the hallways. She kept running until she heard laughter following her.

"It's a joke! Stop running, I was just kidding around!" At the sound of Sora's light voice, she finally stopped. She spun on her heels and observed Sora jogging up to her holding a transparent sheet in his hand. "You see?" He held up a clear sheet that the teachers used for overhead projectors. It had two dots and a line on it. Now that she looked at it closely, it resembled an extremely basic stick figure face. He grinned at her victoriously. "Why are you so afraid of such a poor drawing?"

She shook her head disbelievingly. She couldn't believe that such a stupid face freaked her out so much. "You're a jackass." She punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow!" He rubbed the spot gingerly, but started laughing. "Damn Kairi, I never knew you were such a scaredy-cat."

"Shut up, asshole."

He continued laughing at her.

"How did you come up with this stupid story anyway? Did you plan this from the start? Were you being late on purpose?" she probed.

"If my story's stupid, I don't know what that says about your reaction."

She glared.

He grinned. "I wasn't planning on it. The only reason I've been late is because of one too many late-night gaming sessions. I knew you were gonna come looking for me, so I decided to do a little set up. I got myself a blank sheet, drew a face, and put it against the window. You wouldn't see it unless you were looking for it," he explained in good humor.

"You are such a dick."

"I was pretty good, wasn't I? You totally bought it, didn't you?"

"You're annoying."

"But it's not like I'm lying."

"What do you mean?" she asked suspiciously.

"Everybody has a face following them. Buried deep in the dark recesses of your mind is something that we absolutely don't want to see, and it's only when we're alone, surrounded by darkness and silence, that it shows itself." He pointed to his head. "That's where the _real_ monsters are."

"Shut up." She had enough of his creepy blathering.

He giggled the entire way home, gloating about his successful prank against her. She couldn't believe how she walked right into it. She hadn't felt this embarrassed since getting hit in the face with a volleyball in PE.

When they parted ways, she kicked him in the legs.

He hobbled away in laughter.

She tried to put the event out of her mind but she couldn't. The more she dwelled on it, the more it pissed her off. She was stewing deep into the evening.

She decided to cool off with a nice warm bath. She lay in the bathtub and recalled his story. She wondered where he got it from, or did he make it up himself? She had to hand it to him, it was a genuinely creepy tale. She dipped her head and looked at the reflection rippling on the surface of the water. Her face distorted with the gentle waves. Sora's words began to creep into her mind. Would a face suddenly appear in the water? Probably not but…maybe it was time to get out.

Just in case.

She stood up and exited the tub, drying herself with a towel afterward.

Something moved out of the corner of her eye.

She jumped, almost falling back into the bath. No way. It wasn't like she was looking for it, it just _happened_. She slowly turned around and saw herself in the mirror. She chuckled nervously to take the edge off. Despite her constant self-assurances, her eyes were glued to the mirror. It was just her, right? It wasn't like there was something else in there with her…not a ghost, not a serial killer, not a demon, and definitely not a _face_…

"Damn it, Sora." She closed her eyes. "I'm just being paranoid, there can't be a face...there _is_ no face. That's right. There is no face." She shivered as the air cooled the moisture that clung to her skin. "_There is no face_," she repeated. "_There is no face._"

She took a deep breath, braced herself...

And opened her eyes.

In the mirror...

A face stared back.

And she screamed.


	2. Scratched Glass

**Scratched Glass**

Sora groaned, but the sound was muffled.

He found it very hard to breathe and his face was hot. Something was smothering him. He clawed his way awake and his eyes shot open to see nothing. He drew his head back and breathed in deeply.

It was just his pillow. He had been sleeping face down. He twisted his body and found himself tangled with the bed covers. He swam in bed, struggling to get free, until he freed himself from the bedsheet. He craned his neck to look at the clock: 3:43 AM.

His head fell against pillow. "Ugh."

Normally he slept like a rock, but on some nights, it was on-and-off.

_tap tap tap _

His body turned rigid like a corpse. He _did not_ hear that. It was just in his head… He hoped.

He closed his eyes and felt sleep tug on his consciousness.

_tap tap tap_

He was rudely pulled back into reality by that strange sound again. His opened his eyes slowly, waiting until the darkness receded and his eyes adjusted. He could make out the faint outlines of his room, with shadows in place of furnishings. His gaze worked its way around the room. He checked the ceilings, the floor, the TV, and the mess of clothes in the corner.

Nothing.

He decided to forget about it, turned around, and covered his head with the blanket.

_tap tap tap _

He heard it clearly this time. It was right above him, coming from the window. The blinds were closed. Good, he was going to keep it that way. He _did not_ want to know what was behind those blinds, not one bit.

But...what could it possibly be? He was starting to think about it. No, bad Sora! Do not think about it!

_tap tap tap_

"_Shut up._" He meant to yell, but it came out as a whimper. "Damn it, I cannot deal with this BS right now..." He took the pillow and squeezed it between his head to block out the sound. "I am not hearing anything. I am not hearing anything. _I am not hearing anything_," he chanted.

Eventually, the mantra led him to sleep.

_tap tap tap_

"Goddammit!" He shot up from his bed and looked at the window. "Huh?" He squinted in confusion. It was morning now.

_tap tap tap _

Okay, what was making that noise? With light on his side, he now had the courage to open the blinds . He reached for the string and pulled it.

A tree branch.

It was just a tree branch.

"Frick'n tree," he muttered.

The tree between his house and Kairi's had grown out, its branches reaching as far as his window. It barely grazed the glass. When the wind blew, the branch would bounce and scratch the window.

He never liked that tree. It was planted recently to give more shade to the backyard, but it looked freaky at night, like a giant monster with hundreds of tiny limbs and tendrils. It was almost as if...it was alive or something. It was ugly too. The bark was wrinkled, twisted, and hideous. Weird patterns splayed across the bark. They almost looked like faces.

He put it out of his mind and got ready for school.

It was a long day, but he got through it somehow.

When he got home, he went into the garage and pulled out a ladder and garden shears. He tested the giant scissors, opening and closing them with a satisfying "_shhnkt!_" It felt dangerous.

He carried the ladder and propped it near his bedroom. He carefully climbed up until he was able to see through his window. If the tree was watching him, this was its view. He shook off the morbid thoughts and readied his shears. Before he cut the branch, he examined it more closely. It really did look like a gnarled hand with curled fingers stretching out. Why did this tree have to be so creepy? Begone, foul abomination!

**SHHHNNKTTT!**

A sharp shriek startled him and he almost toppled over. He held onto the ladder tightly and noticed Kairi below him.

"You almost killed me!" he yelled at her.

She giggled. "You should be more careful! What are you doing up there anyway?"

"What do you think? I'm doing some trimming." He refocused on his task, and with several chomps of the shears, he made sure that no branches were within ten feet of his window.

Kairi watched and made small talk as he worked. "Finally done?"

He stepped down from the ladder and rested the shears on his shoulder. "Yup, now let's get out of here."

Later that night, Sora was in his room, getting ready to sleep. He looked at the dark looming tree outside, its threatening silhouette spreading out against the night sky. Tingles danced on his back. It really did feel like the tree was watching him. Not anymore; he shut the blinds.

He nestled himself in bed and fell asleep easily.

Sora woke up with a start and looked around in confusion for a moment. The glowing green digits of the clock glared at him: 2:17 AM.

He sighed. It was another one of those nights again. He rolled over and closed his eyes, feeling the sweet embrace of sleep close in on him.

...

His eyes shot open. Did he just...? He strained his ears for any sound.

...

...

...

He let out a sigh of relief and chuckled. It was just his imagination.

...

...

...

_tap tap tap_


	3. Knock a' By

**Knock a' By**

The door shook as a fist rattled against it.

Kairi frowned in irritation. Sora's method of knocking was always obnoxiously loud and abrasive, which made it very distinctive.

"It's open!" she yelled. She heard the door make a _swish_ and saw her friend walk in with a grin.

"You got any food?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes. "That's the first thing you say to me?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm hungry."

"There's some chips in the kitchen," she answered back.

"Cool." He disappeared for a minute and returned to the front door with a can of Lay's Stax in hand. He gave a small salute. "Thanks!" He swung the door open and walked into the evening night.

She shook her head. He always raided her house for free food. It got to the point that her mom was really just buying it for him.

She turned around back to the laptop that sat in her lap. She sat on a couch with her back towards the front door. With one fluid twist of the neck, she could see who was coming in. She was trying to do her homework since it was late, but saw the Instant Messaging client flashing. It was a message from Pence.

Pence was a good friend from school. He was real tech-savvy and helped set up her laptop. He might look goofy with his pineapple hair, tennis headband, and Dog Street jersey, like he threw together a bunch of disjointed sports apparel and called it a day, but he was actually very smart, nice, and funny, despite the gaudy exterior. He was a real fan of cartoons, giant robots, and video games. It sometimes made it really easy, or really hard, to relate to him.

She opened the message.

_You wanna see something cool?  
><em>

She typed in her reply:

_**Not really  
><strong>_

_Come on, I've been dying to show this off to someone  
><em>

_**The last "cool" thing you showed me, it turned out to be a virus  
><strong>_

_I'm sorry about that okay? I even upgraded your laptop RAM to make up for it too!  
><em>

_**Fine, what is it?  
><strong>_

The IM client asked get if she wanted to accept an invitation to a video chat.

_**?**_

_Don't worry, it's not like I'm naked_

She giggled.

_**Alright  
><strong>_

She clicked "yes."

The webcam activated, showing Pence in one window and herself in another one. The window with Pence was much bigger than her own. She swayed her head and saw herself mimic the moves on the screen. There was a slight delay in the footage.

Pence seemed like he was in his room. Behind him were various anime and video game posters. He smiled at her, which she returned.

"Can you hear and see me?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, pretty clearly too. So what is it you wanna show me?"

The front door started to rattle again, heavy fists pounded against the frame.

"Not again—give me a moment," she excused.

"No problem, I need one too." He disappeared off-screen.

"It's open!" she yelled. She heard the door open but didn't bother to turn around, since the webcam looked over her shoulder quite nicely. She saw Sora walk through the entrance on the video stream. He waved at the camera before disappearing into the kitchen. Thanks to the stream lag, his wave turned out a little choppy.

Pence finally showed up wearing a weird outfit. "What do you think?"

She burst out in laughter. "Oh my God, are you actually cosplaying?"

"Of course!" Pence was wearing goggles on his head and a stylish vest with various accessories attached to his belt. They looked like the device rangers would use to transform into more powerful forms, or was it to evolve monsters?

"Are you supposed to be a trainer, a tamer, or a ranger?"

"All three, baby! I've come up with something new; I call it cross-cosplaying—or crossplaying for short."

She caught Sora returning to the front door. "Later Sora!" she yelled, waving her hand. He gave a thumbs up and shut the door behind him.

She turned back to the screen to be greeted with Pence's confused face. "Is Sora there?"

She nodded. "Yeah, he just dropped by to raid my kitchen. He just left right now."

He tilted his head curiously. "Through the front door?"

"Where else? He was in the video."

"Are you sure? I didn't see anybody else besides you."

She shook her head. "Maybe your stream is lagging."

The door clattered again with loud thuds.

"You hear that? That's him again." She set the laptop down on the coffee table and walked up to the door. She pulled it open to see Sora's grinning face.

"Sorry to be back so fast," he apologized.

"Did you forget something? You were here just a moment ago."

"Nah, I'm here to restock." He caught the laptop sitting on the coffee table. "Is that Pence?" He flew over to the machine and looked at the screen. "Yo, what up Pence? Wait, are you cosplaying, right now?"

"You better believe it."

Sora laughed. "Who are you supposed to be? A mix?"

"That's right, I'm calling it cross-cosplaying! Or crossplaying for short!"

Kairi moved her head in. "See? It's Sora."

"Were you guys talking about me?" the brunet wondered.

"Yeah, he missed you leaving the house a minute ago," Kairi revealed.

It was Sora's turn to look confused now. "A minute ago?"

"Yeah, you were here, right?"

"Um…no?"

She scrunched her eyebrows in irritation. "That's not funny, Sora. You _were_ here, right?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Look Kairi, I've been recording this video chat, so you can just see for yourself," Pence alerted.

"Fine. The video will prove it."

His video stream ended and in its place was Kairi's stream from earlier.

It showed her sitting on the couch when the door started shaking.

"See?" Kairi said.

_"Not again, give me a moment. Come in!" _the video Kairi said.

A few seconds passed.

"_It's open!"_

The door opened but there was nobody.

It closed on its own.

"What the—where are you?" Kairi asked worriedly.

Pence fast-forwarded the footage. "This is what I saw."

_"Later Sora!"_ In the video, Kairi waved her hand even though there was nobody behind her.

"What on earth are you doing?" Sora laughed. He didn't get any reaction though. He turned to her and she stared back with terrified eyes.

"But I…that's…what…" she began mumbling. "If it wasn't you…then who was knocking on the—"

**KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK**

Sora looked over the couch to the front door. "Uh…Kairi…that's not coming from the front door…is it?"

Frozen, she was barely able to shake her head no.

It was coming from upstairs.

_"Hey guys? What's going on over there? How come you're not saying anything? Hello? Uh…guys?"_


	4. Secret Message

**Subject**: re: help me

**From**: "fstomxr" ####****.***

**To**: blueskyking mooglenet

**Options**: Reply | Delete | Forward

* * *

><p><em>you shouldnt be posting so freely.<em>

_they can see everything._

_they are watching you._

_your friends._

_your family._

_every one._

_this hasnt started just now. it started long ago. before there was even man. we just dont realize it_

_not until we initiated the gap project._

_we wanted to know if we could use fear as a weapon. if we could use it to control people._

_entire populations._

_whole islands._

_we started from a single hypothesis._

_what if fear_

_didnt exist just inside our heads?_

_what if fear_

_was actually shared?_

_what if fear_

_was something that existed outside our reality?_

_in order to test this hypothesis._

_we conducted an experiment._

_we selected an individual._

_a particularly nervous one._

_he had experienced night terrors._

_extreme anxiety attacks._

_and suffered from various mental ailments._

_he was the perfect subject._

_we tested him._

_showed him disturbing images._

_exposed him to low frequency sounds._

_we restrained him._

_and simulated intense situations._

_but we were not able to prove our hypothesis._

_we resorted to extreme procedures._

_we called it sensory deprivation._

_we cut out his eyes._

_cut out his ears._

_cut out his tongue._

_cut out his skin._

_we submerged him._

_in total darkness._

_our procedure proved fruitful._

_he began to exhibit signs of erratic behavior._

_his brainwave readings were off the charts._

_he died._

_cause of death: unknown_

_but his brain continued to produce readings._

_something had taken control of him._

_killed him._

_but used him._

_his head._

_eyeless._

_earless._

_noseless._

_tongueless._

_turned to us._

_warned us._

_that beyond our reality._

_is a gap._

_and that we had made a grave mistake._

_we had made a hole._

_and now._

_our world will be swallowed by this gap._

_your friends are only the first._

_soon._

_everybody will be disappear._

_and there will be nothing._

_but fear._

* * *

><p>Do not reply using your email client.<p> 


	5. Sorry

**Sorry  
><strong>

Sora was in the library, using the computer to do his homework.

He was on his feet since the computer was put on a high table near the entrance. The computer was meant to be used for quick tasks, like checking e-mail or turning in assignments, but he didn't mind standing; he liked being close to the exit.

Although there was a perfectly functioning computer lab with empty seats nearby, it was too close to the study rooms for his comfort. The library was huge, two stories high, and had rows upon rows of shelves covering the floor. They weren't small shelves either; they shot up two meters tall, requiring foot ladders to reach the top shelf.

Sora was clicking on multiple choice answers when a familiar pineapple-headed student entered the library. It was Pence.

"Hey Sora, do you mind if I borrow the computer for a second?" he asked.

"Huh?" Sora squeaked. All the computers next to him were occupied, but he noticed Pence lugging around a case. "Don't you have a laptop?"

Pence grinned apologetically. "I just want to test something out. There might be something wrong with my laptop, so I want to verify my suspicions on another computer."

The brunet sighed in irritation. "Fine, but let me finish this quiz first. This thing is timed." He turned to the screen and saw that he only had a minute left to finish. "Crap, wasted too much time talking!" He rushed through the questions, clicking on random bubbles until the clock ran out. "Damn it."

"Sorry dude," Pence apologized.

"Nah, I was spending too much time thinking about the questions anyway. I guess you can use it now. What the heck do you need to test anyways?"

The pineapple-headed boy walked up to the computer and opened a proxy, letting him bypass the school filters. "It's nothing crazy. It's just that…well, my story disappeared."

Sora tilted his head. "Your…story?"

Pence nodded. "Yeah. I'm a big fan of anime. I like to write fanfiction from time to time."

"Seriously?" He shouldn't have been surprised but…he was surprised. He didn't peg Pence to be the writing type; he seemed more techie than creative. Probably best not to underestimate the power of fandom, it probably drove fans to try out new things.

"Yeah. I use FanFic dot net to upload my stories. If you ever want to read them, my penname is _Penceled_."

"Nice name."

"Thanks. Anyways, the last story I uploaded got stuck in the database or something. I can't access it from the main site." Pence logged into his account on FanFic dot net.

"Probably a glitch in the system or something," Sora commented offhand.

"I can access it on my account and preview it just fine." He moved his cursor and clicked on the Story Preview button, which popped up a new window with the story. "But look at this." He exited the window and went into the main fanfiction listing. He clicked on his link. "You see? It goes to this error screen and says, _Story No Longer Exists_. I got several buddies online, and they all experienced the same thing. The site must be spazzing out."

"You mind if I read your story?"

Pence looked embarrassed. "Uh…yeah, sure." He moved his cursor to the Story Preview and clicked on it again.

A new window popped up, but his story was replaced with numerous error messages:

_user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists u**ser id:** 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists u**ser id: 8678**25 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exis**ts use**r id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 86782**5 no lon**ger exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867**825** no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists use**r id: 86**7825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists **user i**d: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exis**ts** user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer **ex**ists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer e**xists** user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists us**er id: 8678**25 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists use**r id: 867**825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825** no lon**ger exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: **867825 no lo**nger exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exi**sts user id**: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user id: 867825 no longer exists user_

"What the hell? But it was fine just a moment ago!" Pence yelled. He tried to close the window but another popup appeared:

_This page is asking you to confirm that you want to leave - data you have entered may not be saved._

"Yes! Whatever!"

_Sorry, but the page you are looking for no longer exists. _

"What the heck is going on?" Pence took out his laptop and opened it. After the screen sprang to life, he tried logging in again.

_Sorry, but Penceled no longer exists._

"What the hell?" He stopped trying to log in and scanned the main directory. He quickly scrolled through the links. "All my stories have been deleted! This is BS; I'm definitely e-mailing support about this." He clicked on the Support link and another popup appeared.

_Sorry, but you have been deleted._

The laptop suddenly froze, locked up, and shut down.

Pence slapped it a couple times. "Stupid piece of—damn it. I think I just got hacked."

"Hacked?"

"Either that or I got a virus." He shook his head. "Sorry for all the trouble. I'm gonna go home and see what's up. I wonder if any of my online buddies got hacked as well."

"I hope you solve all your problems. It seems like your laptop got messed up. Once you get your account back up, send me a link to your story will you? I'm kind of curious how good you are," Sora requested.

"Hahaha, I'm not that great, but I will once I do!"

They parted ways.

Later that night, Sora was browsing MoogleTube for music videos when he received an e-mail from _penceled at D islands dot com_.

The subject heading said:

**Here's My Story!**

Sora grinned. It looked like Pence finally got things up and running again. He clicked on the link and it brought him to FanFic dot net.

The browser window showed up and started loading. The Moogle icon in the corner spun around for minutes as he waited. Fed up, Sora stopped the loading and refreshed.

_Web page not available_

"And this is why I hate computers. Is my internet down?" He opened a new tab and his homepage loaded just fine. He returned to the blank page and refreshed it again.

The story finally showed up!

But...

There was something weird about it.

The story was really short.

Actually, it was just one sentence:

_Sorry, but your friend has been deleted. _


	6. Hide n' Seek

**Hide n' Seek**

A brunette girl bounced up to Kairi during lunchtime.

"Kai Kai! How're you feeling?" the girl greeted. She was Selphie, Kairi's best friend not named "Sora." She was an airhead, kind of gullible, but held good intentions for the most part. She was effusive, bubbly, and exuded nothing but positive vibes. She could be spotted from a mile away with her garish girly skirts and dresses.

Kairi bit into her sandwich and watched the other girl with guarded eyes. "That depends on the favor you're gonna ask me."

Selphie acted surprised, but then grinned. "You know me too well!" she complimented. "You remember that purse we saw in Destiny Plaza the other day?"

She did. Two days ago, they walked through Destiny Plaza, a shopping district, and Selphie went googly-eyed over an authentic Trabia bag displayed on a storefront. Trabia was one of the most sought after brand names.

"Sorry, but I don't have any money," the redhead answered.

"No no, it's not like that. I'm going to be babysitting Denzel; I was hoping you could keep me some company!"

Denzel was a 6-year old boy who lived next door to Selphie. She affectionately called him her "personal cash cow." Whenever she needed money for something, she would babysit him.

"Are you going to split your pay with me?"

"But then it wouldn't be a favor," the bubbly girl pointed out. "I'll return it, I promise!"

"As long as you pay back the other five favors you owe me too."

Selphie smiled innocently.

"When is it?"

"Tomorrow."

Kairi finished off her sandwich with a large bite. "Okay."

The next day came and Kairi accompanied Selphie to Denzel's house. They were greeted by his parents; his dad, Abel, and his mother, Chloe.

"Hi Selphie, who's this?" Abel asked.

The brunette nodded. "This is my friend, Kairi! She's going to help me watch over Denzel."

Abel nodded. "Nice to meet you. I'm Abel, and this is my wife, Chloe."

Kairi bowed. "Nice to meet you."

"Well then, I guess we'll be off. You know the drill, Selphie," Chloe remarked, smiling.

"Okay, goodbye, and have a nice evening!" Selphie waved.

Kairi and Selphie entered the house after the parents drove away to have their date. Kairi took a look around, examining the kitchen and living room. It was nicely furnished, clean, and unremarkable as far as homes went.

"Denzel! Where are you?"

A small boy with messy brown hair and blue eyes ran out to greet them. "Hiya Selphie!" Upon catching sight of Kairi, the boy tilted his head. "Who are you?"

"Denzel, that's no way to greet somebody!" Selphie admonished. "Her name is Kairi."

Kairi bent down on her knees and smiled. "That's right, and you must be Denzel."

The boy grinned. "You're pretty!"

Selphie squealed. "Isn't she? Look at that, you already got yourself a fan!"

Turning red, Kairi laughed.

Selphie and Kairi settled themselves in the living room. The TV was on but Denzel was seated in front of the computer playing random flash games. The two girls chatted about random topics deep into the evening.

"You notice something weird about Sora lately?" Kairi asked.

"So you finally noticed?" Selphie replied excitedly.

"Huh?"

"That's he's a man now! I was wondering when you would finally realize it."

"I don't follow…"

"Your true feelings for Sora! Come on, don't give me tired line of _we're just friends_."

Kairi rolled her eyes. Selphie was insistent that there was something going between them, despite her pleas to the contrary. "I'm talking about his book. He started lugging around this giant encyclopedia all of a sudden."

"An encyclopedia…of love?" Selphie giggled.

Kairi should've known better than to relay her worries to the brunette.

"Kairi!" Denzel shouted.

The auburn girl turned to him. "Yes?"

"How do you spell your name?"

"K-a-i-r-i. Why?"

"I'm just telling my friend about you!" He started pecking at the keyboard.

Kairi turned to Selphie. "His friend?"

"Online chat."

"Wow. They start so young these days. I didn't start chatting online until middle school."

Selphie laughed. "Well, there's only one or two kids on his buddy list that are actually real. He also chats with Santa Claus, Mickey Mouse, and the Easter Bunny."

Kairi was completely confused. "Huh?"

"Abel works as a programmer for chat programs on cell phones and computers. He made chat bots for his son to play with."

"That's pretty cool."

If only her father would do something as cool as that for her.

Kairi got up from the couch and peered over Denzel's shoulder. He was chatting with someone. She looked at the screen:

_**Denzel:** im doing great_

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away)_

_**Denzel:** nope, Selphies babysitting me again_

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away)_

_**Denzel:** her names Kairi  
><em>

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away)  
><em>

_**Denzel:** shes pretty too  
><em>

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away)  
><em>

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away)_

_**Denzel:** what kind of game?  
><em>

_**theHeaRtless1:**__ (user is away)_

Kairi raised an eyebrow. Was he conversing with himself? The person he was chatting with was obviously in _Away_ status. She had no idea how the six-year old mind worked. It must be great to be able to entertain yourself like that when nobody was available. She was about to return to the couch when Denzel called her name.

"Kairi, can we play hide n' seek?"

The redhead smiled. "Of course we can!"

The boy grinned in relief. "I'm it! You have to hide while I count to twenty."

She nodded back.

The boy covered his eyes. "One…two…"

Kairi searched the place for a good spot to hide. She decided to go upstairs and check the rooms. She wanted Denzel to find her easily since she wasn't too serious about the game. She opened a linen closet in the second story hall and hid. She could see through the shutter doors, but the view was narrow.

"_Ready or not, here I come!"_

She heard him shuffle around on the bottom floor. She waited for several minutes before footsteps went up the stairs. A small figure appeared at the end of the stairway.

"Hmmm…where could she be?" his boyish voice wondered.

She saw him stumble through the hall, looking into each room before stopping before the closet. It looked like he finally found her.

Before she could prepare herself to be discovered, Denzel bolted from the closet door and ran downstairs.

She didn't know what happened. She was about to exit from the closet when she heard footsteps run up the stairs, but they were different this time. They sounded louder and heavier. Between the thin slats of wood, she saw a figure that was too tall to be Denzel.

She held her breath.

Who was this?

What happened to Denzel?

What happened to Selphie?

The shadowy figure took several steps and stopped before Denzel's room. After a quick moment, the figure backed off and stopped before the master bedroom. The figure walked closer and then stopped before the bathroom.

Finally, it walked up until it stood right before the closet door, blocking all light from the hallway. It was completely dark inside the closet.

Kairi's heart was beating at an uncontrollable rate. Sweat began to drip from her head. She closed her eyes and prayed.

_Please don't open the door._

_Please don't open the door._

_Please don't open the door._

Suddenly, the sounds of a car pulling in the driveway floated upstairs.

Abel and Chloe, they're home!

Kairi opened her eyes and saw that the figure was gone. She bit her lip. Was it still out there?

Steeling her courage, she threw the door open and ran downstairs without looking back.

She burst into the living room to be greeted with the stares of Denzel's parents and Selphie.

"There you are! Where were you?"

Kairi let the sight of her friend calm her down. "Selphie! Was there anybody else in here?"

The brunette shook her head. "I just saw Denzel search for you and go upstairs. He ran down and started using the computer afterward. Where were you?"

"I was…hiding in the linen closet."

"Oh? Were you playing a game with Denzel?" Abel asked.

Kairi nodded weakly. "We played hide n' seek…"

"Thank you for playing with our son," Chloe thanked. The mother turned to her child. "Denzel, get ready for bed."

The boy simply smiled and said, "okay!" The mother led the boy upstairs.

"Thank you again, Selphie, for looking after Denzel," Abel offered.

"It's my pleasure."

"Ah, let me get my wallet." He searched his pockets. "I think I left it in the car. You can just follow me."

Selphie gave Kairi a thumbs up and followed Abel outside.

Kairi looked up the staircase. Was the figure there? She slowly walked up the stair and peeked into Denzel's room. Chloe was tucking him in bed. Kairi continued past the room and briefly checked the other rooms.

There was nobody.

"Just my imagination...?" She ran downstairs and was about to leave but stopped when she glimpsed the computer screen. The chat box was still active. She grabbed the mouse to close the window but accidentally dragged the cursor across the screen, highlighting the text.

Kairi froze.

The highlight box revealed text previously hidden against the background. The replies of the theHeaRtless1 were typed in white, which blended in with the screen. She deselected everything and highlighted the entire chat log:_  
><em>

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) How's it going Denzy?  
><em>

_**Denzel:** im doing great_

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) I see your not alone_

_**Denzel:** nope, Selphies babysitting me again_

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) it doesn't look like she's the only one  
><em>

_**Denzel:** her names Kairi  
><em>

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) Kairi...it's quite a pretty name  
><em>

_**Denzel:** shes pretty too  
><em>

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) I can see, and I agree wholeheartedly  
><em>

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) You two should play a game_

_**Denzel:** what kind of game?  
><em>

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) Hide n seek  
><em>

_**Denzel:** how?  
><em>

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) Let's play a special version of it  
><em>

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) Kairi will hide and you will have to find her  
><em>

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) But don't let her know you know  
><em>

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) Come back here and I will guess where she is hiding  
><em>

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) Tell me if I'm right  
><em>

_**Denzel:** ok brb  
><em>

_**Denzel:** I found her!  
><em>

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) Okay, is she downstairs?  
><em>

_**Denzel:** nope  
><em>

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) Is she upstairs?  
><em>

_**Denzel:** yup_

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) Is she in your room?_

_**Denzel:** no_

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) Is she in your parent's room?_

_**Denzel:** no  
><em>

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) Is she in the bathroom?  
><em>

_**Denzel:** no_

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) Is she in the linen closet_

_**Denzel:** yup_

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) Oh dear, it looks like I'm too late_

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) I can't surprise her now, your parents are home_

_**theHeaRtless1:** (user is away) Let's play again next time  
><em>


	7. Dead Man's Portrait

**Dead Man's Portrait**

It was that time of the year again.

Sora stared at the giant "D" on his latest math quiz. The taste of failure was familiar on his tongue. At first, it tasted bad, but now… It was just bland.

Once she found out how he did on the quiz, Kairi decided to throw an impromptu tutoring session to get him on the right track. She seemed to care more about his grades than he did.

It was after school and Kairi was dragging him around by the arm, looking for a good place to study.

"So where should we go?" she asked. She planned to drill him with equations, formulas, and proofs until he dreamed of them during the day.

"Why not just duck into one of these classrooms?" he suggested.

She ignored his words and continued tugging him through the hall, passing by many more open rooms along the way. "I was thinking of the library."

He dug his heels into the floor, resisting her pull. "What?"

She gave a soft smile. It was the perfect opportunity to solve a mystery that had been puzzling her for the last two years. Every time she tried to take him to the study rooms in the library, he adamantly refused. She poked and prodded him many times about the reason, but he would clam up tighter than a pickle jar.

"Oh come on, Sora! What's wrong with the study rooms?"

He turned away from her and looked out the window. "No."

She moved into his line of sight and peered in closely. "Why not?"

He drew his head back and started backing away. She didn't let him get far though. "Can you let go now?"

"Is there something in the study room that I don't know about?" she probed.

He was getting tired of this little game. They played it every time she wanted to tutor him. He wondered if the tutoring sessions were simply a ploy to reveal his reasons for avoiding the study room.

"Fine. I'll tell you, but only if you promise me one thing."

Finally, success! "Sure, what is it?"

"I haven't thought of it yet."

Her eyebrows rose. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's an open promise. I reserve the right to insert any kind of promise I want and you have to agree to it unquestionably. So, do you accept?"

Damn! He really cornered her with that preposition. With two years of built up curiosity waiting to explode, how could she say no? "Fine."

He pumped his fist in celebration. "I'll hold you to that."

She shook her head. "Why call it a promise? Shouldn't it be called a favor?"

"Subtle difference," he remarked.

She brushed off his comment and got excited. "Okay, so tell me! What is it about the study room?" She doubled her efforts and pulled him harder towards the library.

Even though he promised to reveal the reason, he didn't have to like it. He didn't say anything during the walk. They finally reached the library entrance.

Inside the library were shelves upon shelves of books. Along the sides were also rooms with big glass windows meant for studying. One of the special features of the room was that it was sound proof.

It was a section of the library that he often avoided. He had to use the library for many things, such as checking out books, using the computers, or printing out papers, but he never used the study rooms—at least not after _that_ incident.

"Do you really want to know reason why I hate the study rooms?"

"Yes." She held her breath in rapt anticipation. She had been waiting for this answer for years.

"It's because of a painting."

"A painting?"

He nodded. "When I was a freshman, I came in here and used the study room once. It was the first and last time I ever used it."

"Why?"

"There was this painting on the wall. I think it was a portrait of one of the founders of the school or something. It was seriously the creepiest picture I have ever seen. It was this old dude—bald—with sharp hawk eyes."

"So it was just a creepy portrait?"

"If it was just that, I wouldn't be so afraid. The worst thing about it was his expression."

"His expression?"

"Yeah. It looked like he was furious, like he wanted to kill me or something. His face was gnarled in rage, all twisted and snarling. I couldn't study with some angry old man glaring the hell out of me—even as a painting. Seriously, who would paint something like that? The school really has poor taste in décor."

"I can't believe I made a promise for something so trivial…" she muttered.

"Hey, this ain't nothing. I was scarred for days—couldn't even set foot in the library without getting the heebie-jeebies. I couldn't get his face out of my mind. Evey time I closed my eyes, I could see him standing there, and I open my eyes to make sure I'm not freaking out. I get uneasy just thinking about it."

Kairi stroked her chin thoughtfully. "That must've been some picture…let's go see it."

"Are you crazy, girl?"

She pulled on his hand. "Come on! Don't be a sissy. It's time to finally confront your fears!"

He allowed himself to be pulled only as far as the study room entrance. There was no way he was going in.

"Which one was it?" she asked.

He looked at the number plates above the rooms. "It was B5."

She walked over to the entrance and peeked through the window on the door. It was empty. She pulled the door open and walked in.

Sora watched nervously, feeling as if she walked right into the maw of a gigantic beast.

"Hey Sora, come in here."

"Screw you!" he yelled back.

"Real mature. I just want to know where the portrait used to be."

_Used_ to be? "What are you talking about?"

"It must've been moved. There's no painting in here."

"You're not trying to trick me, are you?"

She appeared in the doorway. "Are you serious? Because I am. Hurry up already."

Pushing his unease aside, he slowly made his way to the door. He poked his head in, and to his surprise, he saw no portrait in there.

"See?"

He walked in and looked around.

His uneasiness came back with full force, knocking the wind out of him. His heart stopped.

In the place where the portrait used to hang…

Was a window to the study room next door.


	8. Playground Tales

**Playground Tales**

The bell rang at Destiny Elementary School, allowing the children to run out to recess.

Two eight-year old kids exited their classroom and headed for the playground. They were Sora and Kairi. When they reached the sandbox, they met up with their friend in the next grade, Riku.

As a fourth-grader, he towered over them by a couple inches. He had long silver hair that drew curious stares from other students. It was quite odd to see a child with a shade reserved for the elderly. The teachers and adults always cooed over how adorable he looked, from his eminently pinchable cheeks to his shining turquoise eyes.

"Hey guys!" he greeted. "You wanna hear a story?"

The duo locked eyes with each other. They looked up to Riku because of his seniority, which made him privy to all sorts of mature stories. He was their direct line to the future and their source of information on what to expect in the next grade. They were always eager to listen.

"What kind of story?" young Sora wondered.

Riku grinned maliciously. "A scary one."

The third-graders laughed; they didn't have much faith in Riku's ability to scare them.

"Yeah right," Kairi teased.

Riku didn't let their skepticism faze him. "Laugh while you still can. I promise you will cry to your mommies after this."

"So what is it?" Kairi prodded.

"This is a true story. It happened one hundred and fifty years ago."

The declaration of factuality piqued their childish curiosity.

"Back then, everything was older. The streets were made out of bricks instead of cement, and there were lanterns instead of street lights. The rich people could ride on horses, but everybody else used their legs.

But on nights with no moon, nobody dared to leave their homes because of the darkness.

They didn't have electricity back then, so they needed somebody to light the lanterns when night came. They called him, the '_candle man_.' He would walk around at night with a candle and light each lantern until morning came.

But on one night, on the darkest of all nights, he had to go out alone. To be a candle man, you had to be tough and afraid of nothing—especially not the dark. The candle man never got scared.

But on this night, he moved slower than usual, took longer than usual, and wasn't acting like himself. Every time he lit a lantern, he would feel relieved.

There were thirty lanterns that he had to light, all on one road. They were next to houses, so whenever people saw the lamp outside their house light up, they thanked the candle man.

For the people who lived on the tenth lamp, the candle man came at nine o' clock every night. The boy who lived in the house always thanked the candle man for coming. He was afraid of the dark, and could never sleep until the candle man came. He waited by the window for the candle man to come, but he was late.

The boy waited for five minutes.

Then he waited for ten minutes.

Then twenty minutes.

...

**ARRRRGGGGGHHH!"**

The two children jumped when Riku suddenly screamed at them. The silver-headed child threw his head back in laughter.

Sora and Kairi finally calmed down, embarrassed and annoyed.

"Is that it?" Sora asked.

"Nope. That was what the boy heard from outside," he said, continuing the story.

"It was a horrible scream. Terrifying! Inhuman, like somebody _dying_.

'_Somebody help me_!' the candle man yelled.

_Help me!  
><em>

_Help me! _

_Help me!_

But nobody came, even though they could hear him, they were too scared of the dark.

People down the road heard him yelling for help as he ran past, and they could see his candle moving in the dark, but nobody dared to leave their homes.

Then, everything went quiet.

The next day, people searched for the candle man.

They searched the streets.

They searched his house.

And they searched the forests.

But they never found him."

"What happened to him?" Kairi asked.

"Nobody knows, but whatever it was, it scared the toughest man in town. Some think it was a ghost, others think it was a monster, and some think he just went crazy.

But they say, on the darkest of nights, that starting from the tenth lamp, a candle lights up and runs down all the way to the end of the road.

If you follow it to the end, you'll meet the candle man.

He'll ask you:

_Why didn't you help me when I screamed?_

Before you can answer, he'll hug you and say:

_I wonder…will anyone help if you do?_

Then you disappear...

Forever."


	9. Sketchy Headlines

**Sketchy Headlines  
><strong>

It was too hard to resist the temptation to slack off when it came to the internet.

Sora constantly told himself that he was going to focus, but once his homepage popped up, the path to distraction was endless. It was the reason why Kairi was with him, sitting on his bed reading a textbook. Perhaps her presence could keep him honest. High school was a lot tougher than he thought. He wasn't handling the transition between middle and high school too well. He resisted the urge to go to his Moogle+ account and scanned his homepage. His eyes looked through the headlines until one caught his eye:

**Dead body found dumped at the beach from last week possibly connected to a murder three weeks ago.**

"Damn…this world is going to hell," he remarked.

Kairi stopped and looked up to see Sora on his laptop. He was sitting by his desk. "What makes you say that?" she asked.

"They found a dead body at the beach." He clicked on the link and the news story opened. He read it and relayed the details to her. "The victim is a twenty-five year old woman who went missing a couple days ago. She was last seen leaving from a gym. The police think it might be related to another murder three weeks ago, when they found a body on the other side of the island. It's the same pattern. The victim goes missing for a couple days and their bodies finally turn up on the beach. Both victims were strangled to death."

Kairi shivered. "Way to ruin my day. Are you telling me there's a serial killer on the loose?"

Sora spun around in his swivel chair. "Technically, it's not a serial killing until there are three murders, but the police have issued warnings. All the victims have been girls so far." He gave her a poignant look.

"As if my mom wasn't already paranoid enough."

"This ain't no joke. You got to be careful out there," he warned.

"You'll look out for me, won't you?"

He smiled. "I'll try." He closed his browser window and opened WordPad; it was time to get working.

The next day came and Kairi was moving through the halls when she bumped into a familiar face. It was Naminé, a quiet blonde who often walked around with her head down. They shared some classes together but that was it. She was silent most of the time, and whenever Kairi caught a glimpse of her, she was usually sketching in her notebook.

"Sorry about that," Kairi apologized.

The blonde almost dropped her books when she realized it was Kairi who bumped into her. "You're…Kairi."

She was surprised at being recognized; they barely spoke with each other. "That's me."

Naminé grabbed onto Kairi's shirt and tugged, like a child leading a parent.

"You want me to follow you?" Kairi wondered.

The blonde nodded and led her into an empty classroom. "There's something you need to see." She took out a sketchpad and held it out.

Kairi took it curiously and opened it.

The first page was a sketch of a woman walking near an apartment building. It had an intense charcoal effect even though it was done with a normal pencil. Though the lines came out as harsh scribbles, it was a very detailed image. She marveled at the composition. In the scene were parked cars and a steel gate, with the woman was walking on the sidewalk.

"This is great!" Kairi complimented, but when she looked up at Naminé, the comment didn't seem to make her happy. It had the opposite effect. Naminé's expression fell dark, like she was afraid. She must not take compliments well.

She turned the page.

Now the picture was of the same woman lying down by the beach. Her arms were held behind her head as she stared toward the ocean, away from the viewer. It was another fine image. The sand was impressively rendered and the water was very realistic.

Kairi wondered what this was about. Was this just a showcase for her artistic talent? Maybe she just wanted to share her work with someone?

The blonde stared impassively, urging her to continue.

She turned the page.

This time, the sketch was of a woman walking away from a big glass building. Inside were exercise bikes, pull up bars, and other training equipment. It was a gym.

She turned the page.

It was the same woman who was leaving the gym, but she was lying down by the beach.

Images of the gym and the beach…

Kairi's blood ran cold.

"Lately…" Naminé started. "I've been falling asleep in class." The way she spoke was somewhat frightening, as if she was recalling a traumatic experience. "Every time I wake up…a picture I don't remember drawing appears in my sketchbook. The first two pictures appeared three weeks ago. The ones you just saw appeared last week. The next one is…from this morning."

Kairi turned the page.

It was a sketch of herself, walking home from the school.

Her fingers trembled. Was this some kind of sick joke? What would she see if she turned the page?

She almost ripped it off when she turned it.

It was blank.

"What is this?" Kairi demanded to know. "This isn't funny."

Naminé recoiled from the accusation. "I…I didn't do it on purpose," she excused weakly.

Kairi threw the sketchbook on the desktop. "I'm leaving." She turned around and exited the room as quickly as possible.

What a horrible prank. She must've read the news, drew up some pictures, and decided to scare her. Why would she do that? What did Kairi ever do to her? It was unwarranted. Besides, the picture was completely inaccurate. Kairi never walked home alone.

"Hey Kairi!" Sora yelled. He was running up to her. "Where were you? I've been trying to find you."

"I was with Naminé."

"Huh? I didn't know you two were friends."

"We're not," she stated firmly.

He ran a hand through his hair. "Oh, well, anyways, I can't walk you home today."

"Why not?"

"It's that damn essay. I couldn't get anything done yesterday, so I'm going to try the library; check into one of the study rooms or something."

"Aren't you supposed to look after me?"

He laughed. "Come on, aren't you a big girl now?"

"Fine, be that way. I can look after myself just fine," she snapped back, agitated.

Sora raised an eyebrow. "You're welcome to join me, you know."

"Ugh…" She rubbed her head tiredly. "No…that's fine. Sorry for lashing out like that. I'm just a little…unsettled." She was not going to let this joke get to her. "Don't worry about me, okay?"

An unspoken dread hung over her for the entire day.

School ended, and she wanted nothing more than to run home. When she reached the front gate, she observed the students walking towards their homes. As long as she stuck with them, she should be fine. She comforted herself with the thought of strength in numbers. She sought out the biggest group and started following them.

Somebody was watching her. She had no idea if someone really was, but the feeling persisted. There were plenty of people around, and a police car even passed by, but she couldn't shake off that horrible feeling. As the walk wore on, the group she was following got thinner and thinner until she was the only one left. Everybody had split up and parted ways. Not to worry, she was still on the main road, but she would have to turn into the smaller streets soon.

She couldn't stop shivering. Periodic chills would assault her. Her senses were screaming at her.

Something wasn't right.

She checked her surroundings and found herself increasingly isolated. She lived in a quiet neighborhood, which could be both a blessing and curse. She anxiously looked over her shoulder. The silence was feeding her paranoia.

…

Was that…?

She thought she heard a rustle. It was probably just the wind. It was far too conventional for a stalker to actually hide in the bushes…right?

She wasn't going to take that chance. Her pace sped up.

_step, step, step _

Somebody was following her.

_step! step! step!_

She started running now.

Run.

Faster!

The sound was getting closer!

It was right behind her!

A hand latched onto her shoulder—

"**AAAAHHHHHHH!**"

"It's just me! Kairi, it's just me!" Sora shouted, trying to calm his friend down.

"Sora?" She let out a breath and hugged him. "Oh my god…you scared me!"

He held her close and rubbed her back comfortingly. "It's okay, Kairi."

She detached herself and smacked him on the arm. "What the hell is wrong with you? Why didn't you just yell out instead of chasing me like a maniac?"

He scratched his head in embarrassment. "Sorry, I wasn't thinking. I'm just glad you're okay."

"What do you mean?"

"I talked to Naminé after school…she showed me her sketches."

She narrowed her eyes. "What? Didn't you go to the library?"

He laughed nervously. "Yeah, I did but er…I decided the study room was a really bad place to study. As soon as I left, that's when I met up with her. She was pretty panicked."

"Don't tell me you actually believe her? It's just a bad joke."

"Maybe it is, but I called the cops anyway."

"You _what_? What did you do that for?"

"I wasn't sure if I was going to catch up to you in time. I don't care if it ends up being a prank; I had to make sure you were safe."

She felt warm. It was nice to know he cared that much about her, but she didn't want him to make false police reports on her behalf. "Let's just go home now, okay?"

It was night time and Kairi was working on her essay. Her little scare that afternoon had taken her some time to get over. The thing she wanted to know most was why Naminé showed her those pictures?

Kairi jumped up when she heard the phone ring.

She was still on the edge.

After hearing her mom pick up the phone, Kairi resumed typing. A few minutes passed when her mother burst into the room.

"Kairi, come over here!"

Confused, the daughter complied with the command. "What is it mom?"

The mother hugged her fiercely. "From now on, I never want you coming home alone. I want Sora to bring you home every day after school, okay?"

"Uh…okay, mom," she answered awkwardly. What was up with her?

The next day, Kairi and Sora found themselves back in his room.

For some reason, Sora decided that he was never going to use the library study room again. He swore that he would use more restraint at home. "No more distractions!" he declared.

Kairi laughed, wondering how long his resolve would last. Since she was a sterling student, her essay was already finished. She took her customary spot on his bed and was browsing the internet to kill the time.

She scanned the news headlines until one caught her attention.

Her heart stopped.

"_Oh my god…_"

Sora turned around. "What is it?"

She kept staring at the laptop screen, transfixed by the webpage.

Sora walked in close and saw the article:

**Thanks to an anonymous tip, a suspect has been arrested for the recent strangulation killings. Police sent out a squad car to patrol the main roads once they received the tip. **

**That was when an officer on foot spotted a suspicious man sprinting into a small neighborhood. The officer who caught him said that it was "complete luck" that he spotted him. If it wasn't for the scream he heard, he never would've turned around and seen him in time. Fortunately, the officer was able to apprehend him.**

**Upon a body search, the suspect was discovered to be carrying a knife and car keys. After a search of the suspect's vehicle, police discovered a roll of duct tape, rope, and photos of a girl believed to be the next victim. **

**Police have said that they contacted the victim's family and informed them of the situation. **

**As for the scream the officer heard, he was never able to find who made it.  
><strong>


	10. Essay

**Sora Hikari**

**Period 2**

**History**

**The Missing Town**

Three-hundred and fifty years ago, colonists set sail across the ocean to form new colonies, habitations, and places to live. Our home, _Destiny Islands_, is one of them. Many of these still exist today, like _Twilight Town_, _Traverse Town_, and _Radiant Garden_.

Not every colony survived though, and some were lost, either due to harsh weather conditions or natural disasters. The famous destruction of _Ashland_ is one such example. Nobody could've predicted that the once-dormant volcano would erupt and destroy everything. _Flora Fields_ is also notorious for its large collection of inedible and toxic plants that wiped out many of its early settlers, but no colony puzzles historians more than the _Island That Never Was_. It continues to be one of the biggest mysteries in this world.

Its original name was _Dusk Island_. It had perfect conditions for settlement: stable weather, fertile soil, and lots of fresh water. Resources were plentiful. The colonists anticipated that _Dusk Island_ might become the lynchpin of the new world. Things went fine for awhile and the settlement maintained constant contact with the mainland. They routinely sent back ships filled with precious cargo, the chief export being an indigenous crop called Gaologu Fruit, a distant cousin of Destiny Island's native Paopu Fruit.

After two seasons,_ Dusk Island _ceased shipments entirely. Several months passed, and due to high demand in the mainland for Gaologu Fruit, two ships were sent to investigate. The journey at sea did not start off well. Half way to the island, a mega storm hit, and one of the ships was destroyed in a whirlpool. The remaining ship was heavily damaged, and it was only through a miracle that they managed to reach _Dusk Island_. However, they were not prepared for what awaited them.

_Dusk Island_ had, by all accounts, become a ghost town. There was absolutely nothing left in the city. The ship sent out groups to investigate the town. They discovered that every home, every building, and every street was empty. There were signs of great disturbance; doors were broken down or hanging off their hinges, windows were shattered, and walls were crumbling. There was no sign of weathering, which led investigators to conclude that the destruction was man made.

The team scavenged the ruined town for any documents, diaries, or journals. None of them contained a record of what happened. They were all normal journals, but the team noticed that every entry stopped on the same day. They also found a common image in the journals, a symbol that resembled a heart and anchor. The symbol wasn't just found in the journals, it was found everywhere. It was scratched into the walls, scrawled on the windows, and carved into the trees. They didn't understand the significance of the image.

Aside from investigating, their second objective was to collect a shipment of Gaologu Fruit. When they first docked, they noticed a cargo ship floating in the docks. _Dusk Island_ had two ships, and it was assumed that the second one was how everybody disappeared. When they examined the cargo ship, they were amazed to find a whole shipment of Gaologu Fruit that was completely spoiled. Flies and maggots were already feasting on it. When they searched the crop fields and the island wilderness, they found no signs of any Gaologu plants. They found holes were the plants were presumably uprooted.

The team recorded everything they could and returned to the mainland. They concluded that all the residents left on the second ship, because they could find no bodies, alive or dead on the island. They also concluded that the second ship carried all remaining samples of Gaologu Fruit. For what reason they left, they did not know. They hypothesized that it might have something to do with the symbol, but they couldn't tell for sure.

The ruins still exist today as they were almost three-hundred and fifty years ago. No efforts were made to repopulate the island since it no longer grew Gaologu Fruit, but it has become an area of intense study for historians. Many theories have been made.

The most popular of which is the diseased _Gaologu Fruit theory_. It was thought that all the crops were stricken with a virus or bacteria. It spread throughout the town, causing a mass panic. The residents decided to destroy all the Gaologu plants, leave the island, and board the second ship. The theory then proposes that the ship must've capsized at sea during an intense storm.

As popular as this theory is, there are several holes. Researchers have never found traces of any kind of "virus" or "bacteria" on the island. What kind of symptoms exhibited would be necessary to cause a mass panic? No known disease is capable of explaining why there were no fatalities. There were no mass graves that often follow in such epidemics.

There are also more outlandish theories, such as alien abduction or mass suicide, but most researchers agree that the answer probably lies in the symbol found all over the city. For centuries, people have studied the image, a heart with a thorny cross in the middle, and three "tails" at the bottom, only to come up with nothing.

It's not uncommon for places to change names. _Radiant Garden_ used to be known as _Hollow Bastion_, which was changed from _Radiant Garden_ to begin with, but the story of _Dusk Island _is strange, compelling, and utterly mysterious. It is now simply known as…_The Island that Never Was_.

**Grade: A-**

**Aside from some minor errors, it's a very good paper! However, you failed to mention that Gaologu Fruit still exists! I suppose you didn't know, since it's very recent news, but scientists have been able to genetically re-engineer the crop back into existence using a preserved sample. It's been on the market for several months now, and it's extremely popular. But besides that little bit of information, it's a great paper! **

**P.S. You should thank Kairi. I can tell she helped you.**


	11. In Machina

**In Machina**

Sora was showing Roxas around Destiny Islands.

Roxas was Sora's cousin. He had come over from Twilight Town to visit for the summer. They resembled each other, but Roxas had actually managed to tame his hair—somewhat. It was still very spiky, but at least it was organized, as opposed to Sora's slapdash chaotic mess of hair. Although they shared the same shade of eyes, Roxas' was more narrow, a little more serious, and sharper. It made him look mature; in contrast to Sora's wide-eyed charm.

It was a year of transition. They would both be in 8th grade after the summer. The leap would be much bigger for Riku, who was going to be a freshman in high school. Sora introduced Roxas to Riku and vice versa. They were friendly enough, and Sora considered the introduction a success. They wandered around the beach for a while, but they finally settled into one of Destiny Islands' prime attractions:

Cait Sith's Ice Cream Parlor.

It was famous for its mascot, a Scottish cat riding an oversized moogle. It was a one-two punch that delivered smiles and merriment to all who laid eyes on them.

Roxas was halfway through his Double Dice Cone when he made the comment, "Is that thing real?" He couldn't keep his eyes off it the entire time he ate. He looked at Sora and Riku several times for an explanation, but they never picked up on his curiosity.

To Sora and Riku, Cait Sith was simply Cait Sith. They grew up with him, so it didn't seem strange in the slightest.

"Well he did just serve you ice cream. It doesn't get any realer than that, unless you think your cone is imaginary," Sora answered back.

Roxas chuckled at his cousin's remark. His cone was definitely not imaginary. He licked it, tasting the sweet combination of chocolate and vanilla cream on his tongue. He could see why the place was so renowned. "I mean, is it a robot or is there like a guy in a suit?"

That was Riku's cue.

The soon-to-be freshman scooped up his Single-Shot Sundae with a large spoon and jammed it into his mouth, sending tendrils of cold throughout his body.

He shivered.

He was totally in the mood now.

"Let me take this one," Riku offered.

Sora rolled his eyes. It was Riku's Story Time now. He suffered through countless tales over the years and had to listen to the same ones every time they met someone new. "Take it away."

"What's going on?"

"Shhhh!" Sora and Riku shushed.

Roxas silenced himself.

"Okay, so this happened a long time ago. I was in elementary school at the time. I think I might've been in third grade or something, I'm not sure. Obviously, when you grow up here, you know all the cool spots. I'll tell you this, as a kid, no spot was cooler than this place—I mean, it serves ice cream, you can't get any cooler than that.

I had this friend, really cool guy at the time. We would always go here. We both shared a sweet tooth for ice cream. We were mini-fridges, and we kept stuffing our stomachs with cookies and cream, pistachio, rocky road, strawberry, you name it. We had no limits. Since we were here a lot, we never really wondered about Cait Sith. He was just part of the store. As a kid, your mind just makes it seem normal.

But my friend asks me, out of the blue one day, '_You think it's a man or a robot?_' just like you did.

I'm like, '_I don't know. Why don't you find out?_'

He laughs at me and says, '_How do I do that?_'

I didn't care much for the question. Cait Sith gave me ice cream and that was that. What do I care whether its a man or a machine? It's just an ice cream dispenser to me, but that answer didn't work for my friend.

He really wanted to know.

He tells me, '_You know what; I'm gonna find out today_.'

And I'm just like, '_whatever bro, I'm eating my ice cream here_.'

I didn't think much of it at the time. Kids talk a lot. I figured he'd make up some bad ass story and tell me how he discovered the truth later. So after we finish up, we go our separate ways. I had to go home, but he tells me he's gonna stick around and find out. I'll see him tomorrow anyways, so why hang around?

That would've been all fine and dandy—except, he never did show up to school the next day. Maybe he ate too much ice cream or something? Probably got himself sick.

But his mom showed up to school. She said she wanted to talk to me. That's when I found out; he never came home that day. She was absolutely hysterical, and I had no idea what was going on. It made me really scared. I told her that the last time I saw him, it was at Cait Sith's.

So she gets me out of school to help look for her son. We head over here, except this place was closed. She knocks on the glass door so hard; I thought she was going to break it with her bare hands. She finally catches the attention of the owner, Reeve.

He comes up to the door and opens it, and greets us, '_What can I do for you_?'

I told her about my little conversation with her son, and thinking back, she probably figured that the guy in Cait Sith's suit was a child molester or something. She goes berserk, and starts screaming '_Where's my son? Where is he!_' to Reeve.

Of course, Reeve has no freakin' idea what the hell is going on, so he tries to calm her down and gets her to tell him what's wrong.

She says she wants to see the man who wears the moogle suit.

This confuses the shit out of Reeve because that's when he tells us, '_Cait Sith isn't a suit, he's a machine._'

So now, me and the mom are both, '_Is he really?_'

So Reeve tells us, '_He's is, which is the reason why we're closed today. He stopped working this morning for some reason. I can show you if you like_.'

So me and the mom follow Reeve into the back, which is actually this crazy robotics bay. I see that very thing, Cait Sith, sleeping with a bunch of cables plugged into his back.

Reeve explains to us how it works and everything, which is all just a bunch of techno mumble-jumble, and then he finally opens up the machine.

That's when we all scream our heads off.

It was the most horrible thing I have ever seen.

There he was, my friend, nothing but bits of flesh, blood, and bone.

Apparently, my friend tried to climb through the moogle's mouth to find out whether or not it was a robot.

It was.

And all the machinery and gears tore him up to pieces.

So that's how I found out that Cait Sith is most definitely a machine.

To this day, I still can't get the image of his mangled corpse out of my head."


	12. Deathbed

**Deathbed**

Sora was visiting Tidus.

They went way back, since elementary. Even though their paths diverged in high school, with Tidus becoming a star blitzball player and rising in popularity, they still remained very much in touch. They were the classic partners-in-crime and used to terrorize classrooms together. They grew out of it, but they still shared a penchant for mischief.

Thanks to blitzball, Tidus had worked up a strong and toned body. He was muscular, tall, and attracted admirers in droves. True to his blond hair, he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but he had a spunky enthusiasm that made him very approachable. With his charisma, good looks, and boyish charm, he was already set for life.

"So what do you think? Tidus wondered. He was showing off his new bed to Sora. The old one hurt his back and didn't provide enough support and stability—which was rather important for an athlete. The bed was one of those new memory foam mattresses that could keep wine glasses from spilling over even if you were jumping on the other side.

Sora gave a low whistle. It was definitely an upgrade from the stiff cardboard box-like mattress Tidus used to have. "When did you get it?"

"Just before you got here. Go ahead and try it out."

"Don't mind if I do." Sora turned around, closed his eyes, and fell back. The bed absorbed the impact magnificently and allowed his body to gently sink in. It felt like a cloud was hugging him. "Whoa…"

"Amazing, isn't it?"

Sora sat up and pushed his hand into the material. "This stuff is like space-aged cushioning or something. How much did it cost?"

"You don't want to know." They both laughed. "Anyways, I got the 360 set up. Let's beat this game once and for all!"

The main purpose of Sora's visit was for the completion of a co-op campaign. They had been working through it tirelessly, for the last month or so, on the hardest difficulty. Because of blitzball practices and other obligations, it was rare that they got a chance to play together.

They dove into it and exploded zombie heads with glee, co-op style.

They played for an hour or two, but Sora was beginning to nod off. It had been a long day at school. "You think I can take a nap?"

"Already putting it through its paces? Go ahead; I'll just switch to multiplayer," Tidus replied.

"Cool." Sora climbed into the bed and closed his eyes, drifting away into a pleasant sleep.

He was floating.

Never had he felt such freedom before. It was like he could go wherever he wanted. His body felt light, weightless, and flexible. He flew in the sky, unhindered and completely free. There was no gravity to ground him and no obstacles to stop him. He soared through the clouds, feeling the wind rush past his face, and played with his newfound powers. He made flips, loops, spins, and other aerial stunts.

Until something clutched his leg.

He looked down but couldn't see anything.

Then it tugged on him.

He tried to pull himself away, but the grip was too strong.

He started sinking.

He struggled but more invisible clamps began to grip his limbs.

He couldn't escape.

He was forced down, losing attitude with every second.

It continued to drag him, lower, lower, and lower…

The ground was rapidly approaching.

He hit it, dust and dirt flying in every direction. The force didn't let up though. It continued to pull hard, pulling him straight into the earth.

He had to get out!

He clenched his arms and steeled his muscles but the invisible hands were relentless.

His body was halfway underground now.

Dirt began to fall into his eyes; the earth spilling messily into his mouth.

Choking him.

Suffocating him.

He couldn't breathe anymore.

He could feel it.

Dozens of tiny fingers pressing into his back.

His limbs were being pulled down, but palms were pushing his body upward.

His spine was about to snap.

Pressing harder.

Pulling harder.

Until**—**

**CRAAAAC—**

"Wake up! Sora! Wake up! Are you okay?" Tidus' cried out.

Sora jolted awake to be met with Tidus' worried face. The brunet gasped for air and looked around, seeing that he was in Tidus' room. He took a moment to compose himself. "What the hell happened?"

Tidus sighed in relief. "Damn. I was worried you were having a seizure or something. You were convulsing really bad."

Sora pressed a hand to his chest; he was finding it hard to breathe. "Really? I think I should go home now."

"You okay?"

He took in several deep breaths. "Yeah, I should be now."

They said goodbye to each other and Sora went home. When he went to sleep that night, he had pleasant dreams.

A couple days passed and Sora was walking to school with Kairi.

His cell phone started ringing.

"Hello?" he answered.

"Hey, Sora, it's me ya?"

"What's up?"

It was Wakka.

He was also a friend since elementary school, but they weren't as close. He had the thickest island accent that really wasn't native to Destiny Islands. He was the captain of the blitzball team. While Tidus was the undisputed star, Wakka was the steady presence who kept the team together.

"Ya think you can do me a favor? Tidus is on the way to school for you, eh? You think you can check on him for me?"

"Is something wrong?"

"He was late to morning practices for the last few days, but yesterday, he missed it completely. I don't know what's up; I can't get in touch with him."

"I just saw him a couple days ago. I'll go check it out for you."

"Thanks bruddha." The call ended.

"Who was it?" Kairi asked.

"It's Wakka. I gotta check up on Tidus. He's been tardy lately."

"Huh."

"I think you should go on without me. I'll meet you at school."

She shrugged. "Okay, but you better not be late!"

Sora smiled. "I won't."

They split up, with him going to Tidus' house, and her going to school.

Sora knocked on the front door loudly.

Nobody answered.

He turned the doorknob and it opened easily. He poked his head in and saw the living room empty. "Hello?"

No answer.

He decided to run up the stairs and check in Tidus' room. "Yo Tidus!" he yelled as he opened the door.

Nobody.

It looked like it hadn't been used in a week.

"Is that you Sora?" Tidus called out from below.

Sora turned around and ran down the stairs. Tidus was on the couch with blankets covering him. It looked like he just woke up. "What are you doing down here? I thought your room was upstairs?"

Tidus laughed nervously. "Ah…well…"

Sora looked around and saw a bunch of clothes lying around. "Have you been sleeping down here?"

Tidus sat up and let his face fall to its natural weary state. "I…I can't sleep in that room anymore."

"Why not?"

"I've been having these…nightmares."

Sora's hands suddenly got very clammy. "Was it like…you were being dragged down?"

His eyes went wide. "How did you know?" Tidus suddenly recalled the episode from earlier that week. "You mean…you had the same dream?"

"Where exactly did you get that bed?" Sora asked.

"At the mattress store. It was a really good deal too, almost 50% off the original price."

"Son of a bitch, this is just like one of Riku's horrible stories," Sora muttered. He went into the kitchen and reappeared with a long knife.

"Uh…why are you holding that?" Tidus asked fearfully.

"Just follow me," he ordered, before running up the stairs.

With no choice, Tidus followed his friend to his room.

Sora stood in front of the bed with the knife, prepared to plunge it through. "So…what do you think?" he asked.

Tidus was confused. "Think about what?"

"What's inside the mattress?"

"Why would there be anything inside?"

"Obviously something about this damn thing is haunted somehow. I think there might be...a dead body inside."

"A dead body? What the hell kind of stories have you been reading lately?"

Sora chuckled. "A lot of crazy stuff has been happening lately. It wouldn't surprise me if there's a freakin' skeleton in here or something."

The thought sent shivers down Tidus' spine. Sleeping on top of a dead body? How creepy was that?

"Here I go." Sora raised the knife and pierced the mattress with a sharp stab. He dragged the blade across, making a jagged tear. With both hands, he gripped the edges of the hole, and tore it wide open.

He peered inside and opened his mouth in shock.

Inside was...


	13. Goodbye

**Goodbye**

Kairi poked her head into Sora's room.

"Hello?" She saw him on his knees with half his body under the bed. "What on earth are you doing?" she laughed.

He pulled out, stretched out his neck, and breathed in deeply after being submerged in a sea of dust bunnies for so long. He turned around to face his friend and smiled. "Oh, Kairi, you think you can help me? I lost my kingdom chain." He was talking about his chain necklace with a metal crown. It was part of his "look." Kairi couldn't recall a time when he didn't have it on.

"Again? You have to take better care of your things," she censured.

He rubbed his head. "I know, but it's not my fault. They just…disappear from me."

"You should really clean up your act. High school starts tomorrow. Are you even ready?" Their summer vacation was finally coming to a close, and they were going to be freshmen the next day.

"Not until I find my necklace. It's not under my bed. I'll look in the closet while you search the drawers." He headed over to his closet and started digging in.

Kairi sighed and walked over to his desk. She pulled open a few drawers until she found it. It looked a little rusty, smudged, and dirty, but it was there. "Well that was easy. Found it!"

Sora pulled out and saw the metal accessory in her hand. "Thanks!" He grabbed it and put it around his neck. He no longer felt naked.

"You should get it polished or something. It's kind of dull."

"It's fine."

"When you lose it as much as you do, I'm surprised you haven't lost it permanently already," she commented, taking a seat on his bed.

"It always finds a way back to its master," he laughed.

"How long have you had it?" she wondered.

"Like five years."

That didn't sound right. "I'm pretty sure you had it for much longer than that."

"Nah, this is my second one."

She didn't know that. "Really? What happened to your first one?"

He took a seat by his desk and raised an eyebrow. "You don't remember? I gave it away."

"Really? To who?"

He gave her a disappointed look. He shouldn't have to remind her who. "Xion."

The name instantly brought back memories. "Ah! Xion, that's right! From elementary school?"

"Yup. We were pretty tight back then. It sucks that she had to move. It's too bad we never got a number from her or anything," he lamented. He opened his drawer and started searching.

"You ever tried tracking her down on Moogle or something?"

"I tried, but her name never came up," he answered. "I found it!" He pulled out a photo of four kids: him, Kairi, Riku, and Xion. "Check it out." He tossed it over to Kairi.

She examined the photo and smiled. Xion was a small girl who had short dark hair and beautiful blue eyes. She was the shortest of their group and amazingly cute. She was never loud like Riku and Sora, but preferred to follow quietly. "I gave her a gift before she left too. One of my patented lucky charms."

"Your thalassa shells, right? I remember she was crying when we said goodbye. Didn't she used to cry all the time?"

"She got scared pretty easily. Riku didn't hold back when he told his stories," Kairi remarked, giggling at the memories. "You guys were pretty vicious."

"Yeah," he agreed. "We used to tease her a lot. Didn't something happen to her just before she left?"

Kairi struggled to recall. Images of worried adults flashed in her mind. "Didn't she…disappear?"

Sora recoiled from the answer. "Disappeared? What do you mean?"

"No, I think I remember it now. There was a bunch of adults at school and all the teachers were worried. She didn't show up for several days. We weren't worried for some reason…and all these cops showed up and started interviewing us."

He vaguely recalled something like that happening. "Did they ever find her?"

"Well they must've. We said goodbye to her, didn't we?" she supplied logically.

The past events were finally falling into place. "Wait…I think it happened the other way around. That's why we weren't worried when she didn't show up to school, we thought she moved away already," he realized.

"But why would she be missing if she moved away…?"

They hit upon it at the same time.

"Do you remember when we said goodbye to her?" Sora asked nervously.

"Yeah. It was here. We were playing in your living room when the doorbell rang."

"And then we answered it."

"It was Xion…she looked sad. She was crying, wasn't she? That's when she told us she was moving away. It really shocked me at the time."

"I think it shocked us both," Sora concurred. "That's when I gave her my necklace."

Kairi recalled that too. "Yeah, and then I gave her my lucky charm. I remember asking her where she was moving. She said she didn't know."

"Didn't we beg her to stay?"

"She said it wasn't up to her. Her parents said they had to move right away." Kairi's face suddenly froze. "Do you remember somebody else there with her?"

"Yeah. It was her brother, wasn't it? He was waiting on the lawn for her."

"Oh my god."

"What is it?"

"Sora, Xion _didn't_ have a brother. She was an only child!"

"But then, who was that man…?"

Sora's mouth opened in horror when he realized what they had witnessed as children. They finally understood what Xion meant when she told them, with tears streaming down her face:

**I'm sorry, but I don't think I'll see you guys again. **

**Goodbye**.


	14. Eye See Tree

**Eye See Tree**

Sora absolutely hated it.

The tree in his back yard stood tall and ominous, spreading out its branches like wings. It made shade alright, but like an ink blot test, he was never sure if the shadows weren't actually monsters in disguise. The leaves cast chilling marionettes on the ground that danced, laughed, and mocked him relentlessly.

Kairi thought he was being overdramatic, but even she began to experience some weirdness.

Normally, they could see each other from across the yard since their bedrooms were aligned, but the tree's branches grew between them, as if to cut them off from each other.

Kairi said that on some nights, she could see a pair of eyes staring back from among the leaves.

He wouldn't know since he kept the blinds closed.

He asked his mom why the tree was even planted in the first place, and she said that it was part of a neighborhood beautification project. They received a nifty sum for allowing the tree to be planted. That was when Sora found out what kind of tree it was:

A Gaologu Tree.

The knowledge unsettled him.

Despite writing a paper about it, he never knew that Gaologu fruit grew on trees. It made the mystery of the _Island That Never Was_ a lot creepier. Why would the town go through the trouble of uprooting these massive trees and where did they take them?

But that wasn't the worst thing about the tree.

He never saw any fruit growing.

He wasn't a botanist or anything, but even he knew that a fruit tree that didn't grow fruit was weird. Perhaps somebody was taking them? Maybe the eyes Kairi saw were from a fruit thief?

He was going to find out against his will.

Sora and Kairi stood on his lawn with a ladder. It was in the afternoon. She was fed up with the eyes and forced him to solve the mystery behind them. He protested but she didn't care.

They leaned the ladder against the trunk. Up high was a dense grouping of leaves. He never saw such a branch formation before. Crooked wooden limbs twisted and turned, green and brown leaves clouded the sky, and an impenetrable thicket hung above them. He had no idea what he was going to find up there.

He climbed the ladder, gripping each rung, pulling himself up, until he reached the first few branches. He was ten feet high where the sunlight couldn't penetrate, right in the core of the tree. Everything was dark. Looking down was like looking up from the bottom of a well. The only daylight was below his feet. The leaves kept rustling, as if something unseen was moving in them.

"Are you okay up there?" Kairi asked.

"Yeah!" he yelled back.

"What do you see?"

"Nothing yet!" After his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he looked around and saw layers upon layers of leaves blanketing his vision like a thick veil. A writhing mass of foliage surrounded him. "_Damn it Kairi_."

He continued climbing and stopped when he noticed gashes on the bark, like claw marks of some kind. They were long cuts and several centimeters deep. He pressed his fingers against it and it suddenly started to ooze out a red syrupy fluid.

Was it...bleeding?

He withdrew his hand but it got on his fingers. It was sticky. He rubbed his fingers together and put it close to his nose. It smelled sweet—it was sap. He sighed; he wouldn't know what to do if it smelled metallic. The higher he climbed the more gouges he found. Some were shallow but others were seeping out sap.

Everything was quiet.

There was no more rustling and the leaves were completely still. He looked down and all he saw was a pinpoint of light. How high had he gone?

"Kairi!" he yelled.

No response.

He decided it was time to come down when a stench hit his nose. It was horrible, like something was rotting. He pulled on his shirt and covered his nostrils. His eyes went up and saw a recess in the tree. It was a hole. Was that where the smell was coming from? Although one part of him told him to bail out, the other part was curious. Besides, if he went down empty-handed, Kairi wouldn't be satisfied and would just force him to go up here again.

He slowly went up until his eyes were level with the hole. Inside was complete darkness. He kept his eyes trained until the shadows receded and he could make out faint outlines.

There were corpses.

It was a pile of dead rodents. Rats, mice, and squirrels lay in contorted positions, with their bodies ripped open and innards exposed. Sora turned away to gather his bearings. He wanted to throw up. He looked upon the grisly sight again and wondered how they got up here.

A pair of amber eyes opened.

Sora was so shocked, he almost let go of the ladder, but he tightened his grip and steadied himself in time. After making sure he wasn't going to fall over, he looked into the hole to see those eyes gazing back.

Sora continued to lock stares, transfixed by the clarity of the eyes. They were a mix of orange and gold that glowed in the dark, almost shining. They seemed to get bigger the longer he stared. An owl emerged from the shadows. It was an impressive creature, majestic even, covered with an array of mottled feathers. Its beak was small in contrast to its large eyes.

Sora didn't feel threatened by the creature. It was like…it was trying to communicate with him somehow. What the message was, he didn't know, but it seemed important. He wanted to understand, but he couldn't. They continued this contest, eyes boring into each other, for several minutes.

Then the owl retreated into its hole, its eyes impassive as ever, until it closed and disappeared.

Those eyes must be what Kairi saw.

Satisfied that he solved the mystery, he climbed down as quickly as possible. He thought that things would get brighter the lower he went, but everything was still dark. By the time he left the thicket, he noticed it was nighttime.

What the hell?

He was only up there for twenty minutes at most, how was it evening already? He looked down and Kairi was nowhere to be found. He dropped down and finally landed on solid ground. He walked over to his house and entered.

His mom and Kairi were standing in the kitchen around a phone.

"What's going on?" he asked.

They turned to him and brightened up instantly, relief pouring from their smiles.

"Sora!" They came up to him and hugged him. "You're back!"

His mom let go and turned to Kairi. "I'll call the police to let them know he's returned." The older woman wandered off with the phone.

"Er…" He had no idea what was going on. "What happened?"

"That's what I want to know!" Kairi shouted, hitting him on the arm. "You disappeared!"

"How?" He was on the ladder the whole time.

"I kept trying to call you, but I got no response. I decided to climb up the ladder myself but you weren't there. Where did you go?" She had to be lying. That didn't make any sense.

"I didn't go anywhere; I was on that ladder the entire time. By the time I went down, it was night all of a sudden."

It was clear that both of their stories were impossible.

"Are you sure?" she asked nervously.

"Where else could I have been? I never left that tree," he explained.

"But I didn't see anything up there…"

If she went up there then… "Did you see the owl?"

"What owl?"

"Those eyes you've been seeing, it belongs to an owl. It's living in a tree hole up there. That's what I came down to tell you but…I don't know. This is weird."

"But…I didn't see any tree holes or anything like that. I did see one thing though, which was really strange."

"What's that?"

"It was a symbol. It kind of looked like a heart but it wasn't pointed at the bottom. It had three 'tails,' sort of like a fin. There was an X in the middle. Do you know anything about that?"

His face registered a small shock. "No," he lied.

"Oh…I thought you might've carved it since you were the only one who could've. Whatever, I'm just glad you're back." She wrapped her arms around him squeezed him tightly. He returned the hug but his thoughts were elsewhere.

A Gaologu Tree and a strange symbol…

Just like the _Island That Never Was_.

He had a bad feeling that something was happening.

Maybe the message that the owl was really sending was a warning.

But a warning about _what_?


	15. Box

**Box**

It was a small box.

It had a pleasant exterior. The lid was purple but the rest of it was pink. A tidy red bow finished the package.

Sora pulled it out of his locker and examined it carefully. It fit into his palm neatly and weighed no more than an eraser.

"I wouldn't open that if I were you," Riku's voice warned.

Sora turned around to see his good friend walking up. "And why's that?"

Riku was about to respond but Sora cut him off.

"No wait, let me guess...this thing's going to kill me, isn't it? Maybe it's from a psychopathic secret admirer who ends up slaughtering my whole family and offers her actual heart to me on a silver platter?" he hypothesized.

Riku grinned and leaned against the lockers. "Why so morbid?"

"That's what I'd like to know myself. You'd be a lot more popular if you didn't scare the crap out of every girl who was interested in you." Sora shut his locker and stuffed the box in his pocket. He checked the time; class was starting soon, so he set off for first period.

Riku got off the metal doors and followed him. "What can I say? I thrive on fear. Besides, I love telling stories!" he admitted. "Especially the scary ones." That was no surprise; he started as a kid and never stopped.

"Only you can see the horror in everything, even in something like Valentine's Day," Sora joked.

"But you see? It's when you take something unhorrific and add a sinister edge to it that makes the horror more effective. Case in point, the _Valentine's Day Massacre_," Riku explained ghoulishly.

Sora shook his head. A lifetime of Riku has numbed him to scary stories. Was this the best he could come up with? "Why not just add 'massacre' to the end of every holiday?"

Riku scoffed. "You're totally missing the point." He was about to say more but stopped. "Never mind, you're no fun anymore. I guess I taught you too well."

Sora laughed. It wasn't often he got his friend to admit defeat. "Did you get a box too?"

"Yeah and then some. Straight to the garbage bin for me," he answered boisterously.

Sora was lucky to get a single card, if that. "Mr. Big Shot, aren't you? That's bad karma you know that? The ghost of every girl you turned down will haunt you forever."

Riku dismissed the notion with a wave of his hand. "But seriously, I would be weary of anything bigger than a card found in you locker." His concern sounded genuine.

"Why's that?" he replied curiously.

"Think about it. How did it even get in there?"

"Obviously—" Actually…how _did_ it get in there? He didn't see any signs of tampering with his lock and only he knew the combination. Did it just appear out of nowhere or was somebody watching him? "Maybe the person who put it in there saw my combination."

Riku chuckled darkly. "And that doesn't set off any alarm bells to you? Can you say…_stalker_?"

Sora stopped. "So what if it is? It's only a box. Probably has a piece of chocolate inside. It's not like its dangerous or anything."

"Are you kidding me? That's when it's most dangerous, when you least expect it. It's probably laced with some kind of chemical, chloroform or maybe cyanide. Heck, maybe a razor blade!"

Sora balked at the suggestions. "I think you're mentally damaged. Let's see what it really is." He poked his hand into his pocket and pulled out the box. It was slightly crumpled from being squeezed in such a tight space.

Riku watched nervously. "I'm getting bad vibes from that box."

"What's the worse that can happen?" He pulled on the bow and it went slack. He stuffed the ribbon in his pocket and grasped the lid. "You ready?"

"Don't do it man!"

He pulled—

"Sora!" Kairi called.

He turned around and greeted her. "Oh, hey!"

She saw the small box in his hand. "Oh, you got one too?"

His eyes went to the box and back to Kairi. "You got one?"

"Yeah, it was sitting in my locker." She reached into her bag and pulled it out. It was the same as Sora's.

Riku looked at the two boxes in confusion, reached in his vest pocket, and pulled out his.

Sora raised an eyebrow. "I thought you threw it in the garbage?"

The silver boy shrugged. "I lied."

Sora looked around the hallway and noticed that they were the only ones with boxes. "Is it just us that received the box?"

"What do you think it is?" Kairi asked. "It's kind of weird that it just showed up in our lockers like this."

"Let's find out. We'll open it all at the same time," Riku proposed.

"Sounds good to me," Sora agreed.

Kairi nodded.

"Okay then, at the count of three. One…" Riku started.

"Two…" Sora continued.

"Three!" Kairi finished.

They all opened their boxes at the same time.

They also dropped it at the same time.

Droplets of blood splashed over the floor.

They stood there in shock, staring at the individual contents of each box.

In Riku's box...

Was an ear.

In Sora's box...

Was an eye.

And in Kairi's box...

Was a finger.


	16. Respite

**Respite**

Things were escalating.

Sora leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. He chalked it up to a lifetime of listening to Riku's nonsense and wiry nerves, but the incidents were becoming more widespread. It wasn't just him and Kairi anymore. His head dipped and his eyes settled on a photo. He reached out for it, flipped it over, and looked at it. It was an image of him, Kairi, Riku, and Xion as children. He grimaced. Once they found out what happened to her, things got worse. It was the spark that ignited a rash of paranormal activity. It wasn't their imaginations anymore. Something _real_ was happening. They couldn't laugh it off as jokes or flights of fancy; they were now becoming close calls and news stories.

The door to his room creaked open.

"Kairi?" he asked alarmed. He did not like the expression on her face one bit. Dark circles hung beneath her eyes and it looked like she had been crying. "What's wrong?"

"Sora…" She was about to collapse until he sprang into action, catching her. She gripped his arms tightly. "Do you think…I can stay here tonight?" she pleaded.

"Uh…" They haven't had sleepovers since grade school, but it was clear that something was bothering her. He could use the company. He wasn't eager to spend the night alone with all the crap that was happening lately. "Yeah. Of course. You can use the bed if you have to. I'll just pull out my old sleeping bag."

"Thanks…" She let go of Sora, walked over to his bed, and sat on the edge. She looked up, gave a nervous smile, and patted the spot next to her.

He took it. "Did something happen?"

"I-It's probably nothing. A really bad joke…I hope." It was a desperate wish, but with the way things were going, Sora doubted that it was. "I'm scared Sora." She turned to him with wide eyes. "I'm really scared."

He wrapped his arm around her comfortingly. "Don't be. Things will be okay." He rubbed circles in her back to calm her down.

"It feels like the end of the world or something," she chuckled darkly.

"Let's not get too gloomy here. It's not official until the cardboard signs come out," he joked.

She giggled. "You should make one then. Herald the end of days." She leaned her head against his shoulder. "Can I tell you something…?"

He let the question hang in the air, enjoying her body's warmth, before answering. "Go ahead."

"I…you…I like you," she confessed hesitantly.

It felt like he just got sucked through his chest. Did she just really say what he thought she said? He turned to see her staring at her lap, avoiding his gaze. "You mean like…more than just friends?"

She nodded slowly. "You don't have to answer me or anything…I just wanted to say it before it was too late…" Fingers touched her chin, turned her head around, and led her into a kiss. She was surprised but reciprocated, slowly melting into his lips.

He drew back, leaving her in a daze. "Too late for what? We got plenty of time," he answered back, smiling.

She brightened up, looking like a completely different person than the scared girl who entered, and tackled him. They lay there in bed, next to each other, with Kairi draped over his side. She nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck. "Forget the sleeping bag…let's just stay like this…" she whispered.

"Mmmm," he hummed in agreement. He was happy but…

He wasn't surprised.

It seemed natural that, as they were grew up together, scaring and taking comfort in each other, those feelings would grow into something deeper than friendship. While fear wasn't exactly the best platform for a relationship, anything to stave off the uneasiness was welcome.

But right now, he would forget all that. He closed his eyes and focused on her warmth, her scent, and her steady breathing.

"I like you too Kairi." He hugged her closely and brushed a stray strand of hair away. "Things will be okay. I promise. I'll be there anytime you get in trouble."

She smiled to herself. "In that case, the same goes for me too. Who knows what kind of mess you'll get into?"

He stroked her head tenderly. "Thanks…"

Nothing more was said.


	17. Seven Horrors

**Seven Horrors**

Roxas looked out the window of Sora's room.

"Your street lamp's flickering," he observed.

Sora stopped using his laptop for the moment, got up from his desk, and peered out to see the light pole sputter in and out of darkness. It was a solid steel pole that emitted light through a plastic encasing twenty-feet high. He never noticed. "So it is."

A small orange light streaked across the street. "Somebody's biking this late at night?" the blond wondered.

Sora returned to his desk and continued browsing the web. "Destiny Islands is pretty active, even at night," he explained. "Don't be surprised if you see people jogging at night."

Roxas tapped his fingers against the glass before opening the window to let the air in. The small fan in the room wasn't enough to beat the summer heat. "That friend of yours, Riku, is pretty funny. He almost had me there, at the ice cream shop."

Sora spun in his chair and offered his cousin a cheeky grin. "That's just his style. He likes to make innocent things appear much more vicious than they really are. Rest assured, Cait Sith never killed anybody. Do you really think it would still be running around otherwise?"

"I know, but Riku just has that way of telling stories you know? Really gets you into it. Where did he get the story from?"

While Riku memorized many of Destiny Islands' unique folklore, he also came up with his own. His dream was to make a story that would be passed down for generations. "He made it up probably. When he sees something cute and cuddly, he just has to ruin it for everyone else."

Roxas laughed. "His stories remind me of the old Twilight Town legends," he commented.

"You guys got some too?"

"Not just some, but seven. They're known as the Seven Horrors of Twilight Town," he revealed eerily.

Sora was intrigued. If Riku was here, he would've lapped it up like a dog. "Sounds pretty freaky already."

The blond took a seat on Sora's bed, ready to impart some of his own folklore. "Every kid in Twilight Town knows about it. They're pretty well known. The first one is called the _Spooky Steps_."

"Sounds surprisingly unspooky," the brunet shot back.

Roxas shrugged. "Yeah, I agree the name could use some work, but the story goes that a wife was waiting for her husband at the train station. It was supposed to be a surprise since he was coming back from an overseas assignment, but the one who got shocked was her. In the train, she saw her husband with another woman. When the cheating husband and woman got off the train, the wife followed them from behind. When the couple reached the Sunset Station steps, the wife pushed her husband down in a fit of rage. The poor guy broke his neck and died."

"Harsh. How big was this staircase?"

"Pretty big. Even I wouldn't skateboard down it. The legend goes that if you ever cheated on somebody, you might feel a pair of hands push you if you walk down the stairs."

"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."

"You got that right."

Sora chuckled. It was a lightweight tale but served as a good appetizer. "That's pretty good, but it's not Riku-status."

"It's not like I made it, I'm just telling you what it is," he answered back. "Anyways, the second story is called the _Friend From Beyond the Wall_."

"Sounds interesting already, how does it go?"

"There's this empty alleyway that, if you walk by, you can hear giggles coming from. Every time somebody checks it out, they find absolutely nothing except for a couple of balls."

"Like tennis balls?"

Roxas nodded. "Right. The famous explanation is that a boy was playing with a ball when it bounced into the alleyway. He tried to recover the ball but met a predator instead. The boy was killed."

"Wow, rather straightforward, isn't it?" His cousin didn't even bother to build up the suspense for the encounter.

"Let me finish. It's said that the man killed the boy by suffocation; he stuffed the ball in the boy's mouth until he choked to death. After the kid died, the man hid the body in a wall."

He raised a curious brow. "How does that happen?"

"The killer was a construction worker. He stuck the body in a hole in the wall and covered it up with bricks, making a new wall on top of the old one."

"Is there actually a kid in the wall?"

Roxas laughed. "No, there really isn't, but the kids love to play pranks and dump their balls in the alley anyways. Tell the tourists the story and freak them out when they check it out."

Sora made a low whistle. "It wins the award for most unusual grave. What else you got?"

"The third is the _Moans from the Tunnel_. There's a small network of tunnels for fast travel in Twilight Town. The acoustics can carry sounds from one end to the other. It's always kind of dangerous when you go through those places alone. They have alert systems and security cameras in place now, but a lot of crime has happened there before. The worst incident was when a woman was raped and murdered with a knife at night. The sounds of her horrible screams echoed throughout the tunnels but nobody ever called for help or checked it out. By the time somebody did come in, they found the victim's body with her throat slit. If you walk alone, you can hear her dying screams warning you of danger."

Sora gave his cousin a dull stare. "I'm starting to notice murder as a trend in all these stories. I'm starting to think Twilight Town is filled with killers now."

Roxas grinned. "That's where the horror comes from. I think it adds character to the city. They're just made up, it's not like they're actually real. You wanna hear the next one?"

"Of course."

"Funny that you mention murder because this one doesn't involve homicide, but there's still death. It's called the _Doppelganger_. There's a waterfall in Twilight Town. It's said that a miserable man committed suicide by jumping in it. His spirit still dwells there so if you look at your reflection in the water, it'll try to take control of you and make you jump in, drowning you to death."

"Sounds deadly. Who came up with that story?"

"The waterfall has a history of bad spills and accidents. It's really to keep kids out of the water."

"I can imagine. How many stories has it been so far? Four? What's behind door number five?" Sora asked eagerly. He never heard these Twilight Town legends before and they were quite different from Riku's usual fare. Riku usually tried to add sinister overtones to things that didn't need it, but Roxas' stories were just straight up horrible incidents.

"The next story is the _Animated Bag_. On top of Sunset Hill, they discovered a bag that was filled with human remains, including a severed head and limbs."

"Wait, didn't you say 'animated' bag?"

"Yeah, that's how it was discovered. People saw it moving and thought there was small animal trapped inside but it turned out to be body parts."

"That's disgusting," he said, grimacing at the thought. "Who thought up of that?"

"There's a policy on Sunset Hill to be careful with your bags because there's a lot of wind up there and it can easily blow your stuff away. My guess is somebody disposed of a body up there and the wind blew it around."

"Maybe the limbs were still moving. They were probably zombie parts. It ain't dead until you hit the head."

"Nothing fazes you does it?" Roxas asked, surprised at how well Sora was receiving it. "I grew up listening to this stuff, so I get chills just telling them to you."

Sora dismissed it with a shrug. "Riku will desensitize you to anything."

"I don't know whether to envy or pity you. This next one is a little old school but it's still good. It's called the _Ghost Train_. Late at night, when the train station's closed, they say a lone train rides the rails noiselessly. Some call it the express way to hell. The legend dates back to an actual train accident when the cart got derailed and crashed through the main platform, killing dozens of people in the process. It was the worse railroad accident in Twilight Town history."

"A ghost train filled with angry souls...a classic ride to hell tale. Is that all?"

"I suppose it's more effective when you've actually seen the train yourself. I take the train all the time so the thought that it can go off the rails is pretty scary."

"I can't relate."

"I can tell. Finally, the last one is the _Lonely Girl_, and this one actually scares the crap out of me because I've actually seen it myself."

"You have?" Sora asked skeptically.

Roxas nodded. "There's this abandoned mansion that belongs to this creepy old guy that's long dead. If you look at the windows though, you can occasionally catch a glimpse of a little girl. Despite the police looking in the building, nobody has ever been found living there."

"You saw the girl in the window?"

"Not exactly."

"Then what did you see?"

"Let me explain the girl's origin first. There are several 'scary' theories, but the worst is the abused victim theory. They say she was locked up in the house and constantly abused until she killed herself. If this was true, then it meant that the owner was some crazy rich psycho. They say that he hid her body somewhere in the house and her ghost is trying to reach out, hoping that somebody could find her body."

"How did they come up with that?"

"People like to think of the worst. I don't know who she was. Maybe it's his daughter or some random kid off the street? I think the fact that nobody knows is what makes it extra creepy."

Sora mulled over that piece of information. Lack of knowledge always increases the tension. "So what did you see?"

Roxas narrowed his eyes. Out of all the legends, this was the one that always had him on edge. "It was stupid of me, but I snuck into the mansion on a dare once. It was pretty freaky inside. All the furniture was covered up in white sheets and the whole place was just dusty and covered in webs. I went up the stairs and wandered around the hallway. I saw this one room in particular with a ton of locks outside: dead bolts, latches, chains, you name it and it was there."

"On the outside?"

Roxas confirmed it with a nod. "It was definitely built to keep people in."

"Did you open it?"

Roxas shook his head.

"Why not?"

"The thing is...there was a peephole looking in. I could look inside without actually opening the door, but when I put my eye against it..."

"Yeah...?"

He paused to draw out the suspense, although the memory itself was enough to freeze his veins. "I couldn't see anything."

Sora chortled in disappointment. "That's a letdown."

Roxas took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "That's what I thought at first. It was like something was covering the hole. I just saw white and red. I was pretty freaked out at that point and got out of there. It wasn't until later on that I figured out what I was actually looking at."

Sora crossed his arms and prepared himself. "What was it?"

Roxas pointed to his face.

"An eye."


	18. Snatcher

**Snatcher**

The kids were all gathered around for Riku's Story Time.

The audience included his friends Sora, Kairi, and Xion. It was after school and they were waiting for their parents to come pick them up.

"Okay guys, I got a really good one today," Riku started.

"Better watch out Xion!" Sora emphasized.

The dark-haired girl whimpered. Out of all the children, she was the smallest.

"Story hasn't even started yet and she's already getting scared," he laughed.

"Shut up Sora," Kairi ordered. She turned to Xion and grinned. "Don't worry; it's just going to be a dumb story."

"Maybe you should hear it first before saying it's dumb," Riku suggested. "Besides, it's not dumb, it's real. I even looked it up in the library and everything."

"Yeah right," she retorted.

"I have it right here!" he revealed proudly, puffing out his chest in presenting proof. It was an old book with tattered pages.

Kairi snatched it right out of his hands and read the cover:

_The Folklore of Destiny Islands  
><em>

"Just because it's in a book doesn't mean it's real," she argued.

Riku rolled his eyes. "Why you gotta say that for? Stories are only fun if you believe in them. Right Xion?"

The girl shook her head vehemently, drawing laughter from the boys.

Kairi gave them an annoyed look. "Just get on it with it!"

"Alright, okay, I will. Let me find it first," Riku requested. He opened the book and with his superior fourth grade abilities, he found the page he was looking for. "This isn't a story, it's actually a poem, but I think it's pretty awesome. It's called..._The Snatcher_."

Everybody nodded.

Riku began reciting:

_Watch out, Watch out,  
>The snatcher is coming,<br>Watch out, Watch out,  
>All the kids are missing,<br>_

_From the eve'nin till dawn,  
>From sibling or to friend,<br>Any child out gone,  
>Final farewells spell the end,<em>

_Watch out, Watch out,  
>The snatcher is coming,<br>Watch out, Watch out,  
>All the kids are missing,<em>

_It is not as it seems,  
>The missing say goodbye,<br>Think it only a dream,  
>Wake up be horrified,<em>

_Watch out, Watch out,  
>The snatcher is coming,<br>Watch out, Watch out,  
>All the kids are missing,<em>

_Where do the children go,  
>A plot of land now found,<br>Many graves in a row,  
>Bodies turned into ground, <em>

_Watch out, Watch out,  
>The snatcher is coming,<br>Watch out, Watch out,  
>All the kids are missing,<em>

_Disappeared up in smoke,  
>The snatcher never caught,<br>His deeds spread legends spoke,  
>To all kids lesson taught, <em>

_Watch out, Watch out,  
>The snatcher is coming,<br>Watch out, Watch out,_

_Or you will go missing. _


	19. re: Strange Symbols

**Subject**: re: strange symbols

**From**: "Roxas" roxstarsk8ter mooglenet

**To**: "Sora" blueskyking mooglenet

**Options**: Reply | Delete | Forward

* * *

><p>Yeah man, I know what you're talking about. It looks like a weird heart right? I've been seeing it around a lot but people don't seem to know where it came from or who's doing it.<p>

It's kinda crazy. One day i wake up and it's everywhere. It's carved into trees, scratched into desks, painted all over the halls at school, even the storefronts in downtown have all been vandalized.

When you told me it was from the Island that Never Was, I started doing some research of my own. You think maybe there's some guy who saw the symbol, thought it was cool, and started putting it all over the place? Realistically it can't just be one guy. Maybe it's one those internet things that catch on and everybody starts doing it.

There's some pretty whacky theories out there. Some think it's a cult or something trying to warn everybody about the end of the world but I don't buy it.

In my research, I found this professor who actually studied the Island that Never Was. His name is Eraqus and he's a cryptographer. He had a theory about the symbol. I couldn't find anything online so I actually used the library to see if I could track down his books. I found one but it was falling apart. It had to be at least fifty years old. I read through it and guess what?

All the pages about the symbol were ripped out. Talk about bad luck. I didn't give up though. You know about Kupo, the message boards? It's pretty popular and has all sorts of random topics. You should really check it out some time. Anyway, I posted a topic to see if anyone had a copy of the book, or at least those pages.

It took awhile but after all the trolls, I got a reply from one guy named fstomxr. Weird name, I don't know what it means.

He had this really funky way of typing, used a period for like every word, but that's beside the point. He told me that the symbol was actually some kind of ward or talisman. I couldn't really understand what he was trying to say and it looked like a lot of nonsense, but the gist of it is that the symbol is a good thing.

I don't know if it's really true because it kind of creeps me out, but it's the first time I heard something positive about it. The Kupo boards got all these tinfoil hats predicting doom and gloom.

In either case, I'm going to leave the symbols alone instead of erasing them like everybody else.

Who knows, I might've just sealed my fate with that decision :p


	20. Nightmare Painting

**Nightmare Painting**

Kairi stared at her locker.

Textbooks were stacked on top of each other. They were usually neat, lined up perfectly, but they were off-balance this time. Through the course of the week, her locker was slowly sinking into disarray. Pens and pencils spilled out, loose leaf paper scrunched carelessly, and things just fell out of place. It was organized compared to most lockers but by Kairi's standard, it was as if a tornado had torn through it.

Her eyes moved to the locker door, which were plastered with photos stickers. It was mostly of her and her friends. She had been spending a lot of time looking at photographs lately. Reveling in old memories made it easier to forget her uneasiness and confusion. Her thumb caressed the surface of a picture, settling on Selphie's face.

"_Where did you go?_" She stared at the image, waiting for a reply that wouldn't come.

She slammed the door shut.

Where was she? Selphie disappeared all of a sudden—just one more to the list of missing. According to Sora, Tidus was taken into custody and Pence still wouldn't leave his room. Their friends were dropping like flies.

"Kairi."

The redhead turned around to be greeted with a friendly face, Naminé. They became friends in freshman year. Although the incident with the sketches freaked her out, the odd artist saved her life. There was no real explanation for it. It wasn't a joke, but Naminé somehow predicted what would happen. It seemed like a one-time thing. She hadn't made any clairvoyant paintings since, something they were both grateful for.

"What can I do for you?" she asked back, trying to distract herself from the worry. It was like Sora said; there was no evidence of foul play. Selphie could've just taken an impromptu vacation without telling anybody.

"Do you think you could visit my home today?" Naminé requested.

It was an odd invitation since Naminé mostly visited, rather than hosted, but given the circumstances, Kairi could understand her desire to not be alone. "Of course I can."

Naminé offered a grateful smile. "Thank you. I'll see you after school." The quiet girl bowed her head politely and left.

Kairi stared at her friend's retreating form with a usual sensation forming on her back.

She was trying to suppress a shudder.

The day whipped by and Kairi was walking alongside Naminé after school. She didn't want to burden Naminé with her worries, but she ended up spilling all her concerns anyways.

"I just don't know what to do. It's like…something's coming…coming real hard for us and I have no idea what it is or what it even wants. I told her to throw away the doll but she wouldn't. You think it might have anything to do with her disappearance?"

Naminé's head snapped towards the other girl. "Sorry, I don't know what you're talking about…" She hadn't been listening at all. "There's something I need to show you." The declaration had an ominous tinge to it.

Kairi narrowed her eyes. She didn't like where this was going. "What is it?"

"I've been waking up lately and there have been…paintings." Her pace sped up a little bit.

Kairi increased her own to match the blonde's. "What kind?"

"Every time I wake up, my canvas has a painting on it. I don't remember ever making it. I decided to put my art supplies away but it still happens. It started happening since this week."

She was really worried now. "Is it like last time?"

Naminé shook her head. "No…it's worse. I don't—I'm afraid. I was hoping that you could—stay with me for tonight."

Kairi clenched her fists. She wasn't going to let something happen to another friend, not this time. "Okay."

They finally reached the house. Kairi didn't visit often so she took a mental snapshot of the place. It looked like any other house, although a familiar looking tree stood in the backyard. Naminé led her into the home. They walked into the living room where five paintings were stood up.

"These are the paintings," Naminé informed.

All five of them were mostly the same. It was a painting of a forest tree line, a rather pleasant rendering of nature. A small grassy field made a border between the forest and the viewer. As Kairi's eyes traveled from one painting to the next, something began to emerge from the forest. It was a dark figure. His pitch black form stood in stark contrast to the gentle greenery. In each subsequent frame, he approached closer towards the viewer until the last frame, where he was basically covering the whole canvas.

Kairi turned away from the paintings. It was extraordinarily unsettling. In the last image, the figure's face was shrouded by a hood, but a lone wide eye gazed back.

"Naminé, this is…"

The artist had her back turned the entire time. "The paintings…they're the same as my nightmares. In my dreams, I find myself in front of the same forest. I have my canvas and all my art supplies there with me. I'm painting the scene but then…I see this man standing in the forest. I paint him. The next day, he's standing closer. I paint him. The next day, he's even closer. I paint him. Finally, yesterday, he's standing right in front. I paint him. I'm afraid of what will happen next. That's why I need you here with me."

Kairi's body was gripped by an amazing chill as she heard the story. She couldn't even begin to fathom the terror Naminé must've been going through. The redhead approached and put her hands on her friend's back, to keep them from shaking so much. "Don't worry Naminé; I won't let anything happen to you."

The blonde turned around, tears of fears running down her cheeks, and hugged the other girl. "Thank you…"

They decided to put the paintings face down since they were too scary otherwise. They spent most of the time in Naminé's room, discussing the recent happenings. The TV was on, stuck on a news channel with talking heads and pictures of police. It seemed like there was nothing but stories filled with murder, death, and suicide. The police were issuing public safety warnings.

"_We are advising that all citizens lock up their doors and windows. Keep the lights on at all times and never travel alone_," the police chief alerted on TV.

"Change the channel," Kairi urged.

**flip**

"_The authorities are at a loss to explain the recent increase in violence. Some people are attributing it to—_"

**flip**

"_They believe it's a sign of the apocalypse and that the world is soon ending. Many people are now congregating to—_"

The TV shut off.

"Is that all they can talk about?" Kairi said annoyed. "News stories like that only make things worse. Why don't they realize that?"

Naminé gave her friend a worried look. "Isn't it because it's true? These things are really happening and the people…need to know."

Kairi didn't agree. It was just fanning the flames of fear and inciting panic. "Even so, that's no excuse to spread fear and doubt," she declared. "Let's change the topic. I don't think it's healthy to dwell on such horrible things."

Naminé had no reply. What could she say? The world was spiraling out of control and there wasn't much good to talk about. "How are…things between you and Sora?"

She was caught off guard by the question. She wasn't expecting Naminé to express interest in that. "Things are…fine." It was embarrassing to talk about. If it wasn't for their video project…then nobody would've known. That incident still gave her the chills. They still haven't figured out who the sick bastard that did it was. "He's the only good thing in my life right now."

"It must be nice."

"Huh?" She looked up at Naminé. She was smiling. Kairi returned it, "Yeah, it is." She had been spending more time with him lately. Although she recalled the particulars of their activities quite clearly, she had no desire to share them. It was a private affair.

The two continued to talk about things, anything really, as long as it wasn't about morbid subject matter.

They decided that Kairi would stay up and keep watch. Naminé had a suspicion that she was sleep-painting, no matter how preposterous it sounded.

"Are you sure?" the blonde asked.

"Don't worry about me," Kairi reassured. "I'll make sure nothing bad happens."

Naminé smiled and tucked herself underneath the covers. A sleeping bag was laid out on the ground but Kairi busied herself with the computer. The best way to stay awake was to play games or browse the internet; she elected for the latter.

It was probably the wrong choice.

All the headlines were going crazy. Terrible incidents, murders, and missing children cases were the only news available. For once, she wished the media would focus on pointless celebrity gossip. Each story seemed to get worse the more recent it was. She felt her heart sink into her stomach as her eyes pored over every word, every number, and every name.

Her eyes would periodically dart towards the time in the bottom right corner of the desktop. It was a wretched ritual: read a story, check the time, read a story, check the time, and before she knew it, it was already five in the morning.

Kairi turned around to check on her charge and Naminé was sleeping peacefully. It was a good thing it was Friday. Going to school would be hell in her state. She shut off the monitor and dragged her feet to the sleeping bag. She collapsed on the floor and let herself nod off into a well-earned sleep.

Kairi's eyes opened just as soon as she closed them—or so she thought. Her hand scrambled around the floor until it found her phone and she checked the time. It was two in the afternoon. She sat up and rubbed her head. It barely felt like she got any sleep but nine hours passed just like that. She looked over at Naminé's bed and saw it empty.

There was a canvas in front of it.

Her body went cold.

It couldn't be…could it? Shaking, she pushed herself off the floor and walked over to the canvas unsteadily. Her limbs were hard to move, sluggish, as if rendered numb. The canvas was facing the other direction. Slowly, she sidestepped the painting and went around to look at the image.

She stepped back in shock, hitting the edge of the mattress, and falling down against the covers. Her breathing sped up, unable to comprehend the contents of the canvas.

There was no dark figure in the painting. The forest tree line was still the same but…there was one little difference.

Far off in the distance, near the forest line, was a girl with blonde hair and a white dress.

It was Naminé.

**knock, knock, knock**

Kairi's eyes snapped towards the bedroom door.

Why would Naminé knock on her own door?

Unless…

Oh god…

No.

It couldn't be.

The dark figure?

Did that mean…?

The doorknob suddenly started turning.

Her hands clenched, grabbing a fistful of covers, and she braced herself for the worse.

**SLAM!**

The door flew open.

It wasn't Naminé.


	21. Intertwined

**Intertwined**

Riku certainly had a way of crashing a party.

By the time Sora and Kairi reached high school, Riku had firmly established himself as a popular figure—if only for utterly superficial reasons. His rugged good looks won the heart of many a schoolgirl, but he wasn't as interested in dating them as much as he was in scaring them. Any girl hoping for a shot needed double-courage; one for asking him out in the first place, and secondly to withstand his stories.

It wasn't often that Riku had a chance to practice his art in front of an audience, but given his natural popularity, he was invited to many parties. They were as good a place as any to scare people senseless.

As friends of Riku, Sora and Kairi had the luxury of inviting themselves as guests, something they took full advantage of. Sora mainly went for the experience. He would occasionally dance or knock down a few drinks, but he never got too crazy. He usually spent most of his time looking after Kairi. She was the type to unwind at full throttle. You wouldn't expect it from her prim and proper demeanor, but after a single drink, she went off the rails. Anything could happen at a party and he'd be damned if he let some douche take advantage of her.

Which was why he was quite worried at the moment. He had turned away for only a second but she somehow disappeared from his sight.

The party was popping, thriving, and buzzing, even in the middle of the night. He was at some house party in a well-to-do neighborhood. The home was huge, built like a mansion, with a full second story and a grand staircase. People were everywhere, obscuring his view and making his search that much harder. With the DJ banging out loud music, calling out her name wasn't an option. He checked outside the pool area for a moment, seeing the patio lights shine on scantily clad girls and boys in the night, but determined that she wasn't there. He entered the house and pushed his way past drunks and dancers to the kitchen. No luck. He continued his search of the first floor until he deemed it Kairi-free. He ran up the stairs and began checking the rooms one by one.

Jackpot.

He finally found her in a bedroom that had about ten other people sitting on chairs and the floor.

Riku was on the bed.

Sora could guess what was going on. Some of the drunks were probably going to piss their pants soon.

"Sora, I'm glad you could make it," the silver-haired sophomore greeted.

Sora brushed off the comment and settled next to Kairi, who was nodding off on the ground. He sighed; she wasn't going to be doing much of anything in her current state. The only option now was to wait it out. He could afford to listen to a tale or two.

Riku drew the crowd's attention and grinned. "Alright guys, I'm gonna tell you all about the legend of the Paopu fruit," he explained.

Some of the audience members were confused. The legend was well-known on the islands, so it seemed rather redundant to tell it here. Sora knew better though. Corruption of innocence was Riku's specialty.

"According to the legend, if two people share a Paopu fruit together, then their destinies are intertwined forever. Sounds great, right? It's basically gotten to the point where 'share the fruit' means getting married, but have you guys ever wondered exactly how the legend came to be?"

He made a dramatic pause. Either everybody was too smashed to answer or the question was obviously rhetorical. Riku didn't mind the lack of audience participation, he worked better solo anyway.

"So I did a little research and the results are pretty surprising. There are several theories about how the legend came to be, but the best one is the _Last Meal_ theory.

It all started with one man. This guy wasn't exactly what you would call...put together. He loved his wife dearly, so much so that he would do anything to keep her, even if it meant committing murder. For awhile, this guy suspected that his wife was cheating on him, so he decided to reaffirm their ties together. The first thing he did was find the bastard his wife was cheating with. After he did, he choked the poor guy with his bare hands, strangling him to death.

Then he went to the store to buy himself a Paopu fruit. That was how he and his wife met each other, he was shopping at the market and she sold one to him. He bought it home and told his wife that if they shared it, their destinies will be intertwined forever. Although it was supposed to be a somewhat romantic gesture, she refused to eat it. After all, she was cheating on the guy, why would she want to stick with him? He kept insisting but she kept resisting. You guys know what happened next?"

The audience was silent, hanging on to his every word.

"He forced her to eat it. She resisted, yelling that she hated him and that she found a better man. He laughed, saying that the better man was already dead. This understandably made the wife very upset. She tried to run away but he was too strong. He pushed her to the ground, kept her there, and stuffed her mouth with Paopu fruit until she was blue in the face. He yelled, **We'll be together forever!** as he shoved pieces of fruit down her throat. When she finally suffocated to death, he pulled out his belt, made a noose from the ceiling, stood up on a chair, and kicked it. What better way to reaffirm their ties than through a murder-suicide?

When you die from hanging, you're supposed to die from the neck snapping, but if it goes wrong, then you'll die the long and painful way, unable to breathe, your body struggling to gather air, until you simply pass out and choke on your spit.

He screwed up.

The police eventually found him half-conscious on the noose and dragged him off to jail. He was sentenced to death for the murder of his wife and her lover. This was back when the government used to execute criminals by hanging them. They don't do them solo, they usually hang em in bunches."

Sora snorted. Riku's casual attitude towards grisly topics never failed to amuse.

"We always like to talk about fate and destiny here; our islands are named after it you know, but the words apply to criminals more than anyone else, especially to a man on death row. What destiny is more certain than a death sentence?

As natives, we've all eaten paopu fruit. It's our national crop, a part of our diets, and recipes. It's only natural that a man's last meal will include it.

But like I said earlier, they hang em in bunches. They were executed in groups and they even made a weekly event out of it, depending on how many criminals were sentenced to death. The group usually receives one Paopu fruit to be split between them all. It's not like they wanted to waste fruit on guys that were going to die anyways.

When it was finally time for the man to be executed, he said to his group:

_If we share this Paopu fruit, our destinies will be intertwined forever._

They split it up, relishing the last taste of their native fruit. As soon as they finished, the guards walked them to the stage. A wooden plank would have five nooses hanging. The man and his fellow criminals put their heads in the noose, and after their final words—**snap**."

Riku twisted his head to the side, imitating a hung body.

"Share a Paopu fruit and your destinies will be intertwined...it was true. They all shared the same fate: death. And you know what's the funny thing? They use twine, rope, to hang them up and snap their necks. Why do you think they say '_intertwined_' instead of using some other word? It's because the legend of the Paopu fruit is actually based on criminals being hung.

From that point on, it became a ritual for convicts to reaffirm their ties together before death.

Somehow or another, it spread to the island and took on a more positive spin, completely ignorant of its actual origins.

So you see, every time you share a Paopu fruit, what you're really doing is making a promise, a promise that you'll die together. After all, isn't that how we're all intertwined with each other?

No matter who we are, who we were, or who we'll be, in the end, we all end up in the same place:

**Dead.**"


	22. The Project

**The Project**

Kairi looked out the window, watching as the sun made its slow descent beneath the tree line.

She turned around to see Sora working on the computer. They were both stuck in the computer lab long after school had ended.

"How's progress?" she asked.

"It's getting there," Sora replied ambiguously. He was busy editing their video project. They had filmed a small movie for their English class. It was based on a book titled _Where Did All the Time in the World Go?_ They read it for class. It was about a man who wakes up to discover the world has been frozen. It revolves around his journey to figure out how to get time moving again.

It was a hefty project. They enlisted the help of Pence to film it while Tidus played the part of the main character. Kairi acted as director while Sora maintained a script and shooting schedule. Since the computers in the lab were much faster than either of their laptops, they decided to use them to put the movie together. They didn't expect it to take this long though.

"It's going to be night soon," she warned. The sky was getting dark.

"You want speed or quality? Because you can't get both," he retorted.

"I just want to get a good grade," she answered simply. It was good to ensure quality, but at what cost? With all the troubling news lately, she wanted to get home as quickly as possible. Safety took precedence over a perfect project.

"Wait, I need your opinion on something," he requested.

She walked over and looked at the screen. "What is it?"

"I'm wondering if we should cut this scene or not." He handed her a set of head phones.

She slipped it on and he played the clip. The scene unfolded in the editing preview window. It showed Tidus walking around outside. Most of the footage was either indoors or outside in the morning, before anyone was awake. It was about a world frozen in time so they couldn't have cars or people moving around in the background. The outside shots were the biggest pain since they had to wake up extra early.

She recognized the scene. It was a filler shot of Tidus walking around town. It was footage they could use in case they needed to pad the running time.

A terrible face suddenly popped up and a loud screech filled her ears.

"WHAT THE HELL!" she shouted, pulling the offending head phones off.

Sora chortled at her reaction.

She realized that Sora had set it up all along. She shoved him in the back. "What the hell's wrong with you? Jerk!" She punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow! Jeez, calm down! It was just a joke," he tried to excuse.

She glared. "A joke? Now is not the time to be joking. Have you paid any attention to the news lately? Instead of wasting time making jokes, how about you—I don't know—actually finish the damn project so we can get out of here already?"

Sora was a little shocked by her outburst. He didn't mean to set her off but he underestimated her uneasiness. In hindsight, it was in rather poor taste given the circumstances. "I'm...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I wasn't thinking," he apologized.

Kairi sighed; she overreacted again. "No...I should be sorry. It's just—I'm short on patience right now. There's so many things I'm worried about and with all the odd incidents, I can't help but—ugh, I guess what I'm trying to say is—"

"Don't worry about it," he offered. "It was my fault to begin with." He got up from his chair and kissed her. "Can you forgive me?"

It was completely unfair. A dizzying kiss followed up with adorable puppy dog eyes? To not forgive would be utter sin. "Only if you forgive me," she answered, smiling. She kissed him back. "Can you finish the movie now?"

"Yeah. Just give me fifteen minutes and I'll burn it to the DVD."

"Make sure you cut that nonsense out."

He laughed.

It ended up taking thirty minutes, but they managed to leave before it got completely dark.

The next day, Kairi approached Sora during break to check up on things.

"Did you bring the movie?"

Sora grinned. "Of course. With the presentation today, how could I forget? I took it home with me and left in my backpack." He unzipped his bag and looked inside. He almost had a heart attack.

"Did you lose it?" Kairi asked threateningly.

"Uh...crap. I could've sworn..."

"Unbelievable. How could you lose our movie like that?"

"But I checked this morning, it was definitely there. Maybe somebody jacked it?" He searched the bag again but came up with nothing.

Kairi sighed. "It's a good thing I brought it up then. The project file should still be on the computer, right? Let's burn a new DVD before English starts."

He nodded and headed for the computer lab. Kairi followed. When they reached it, Sora made a beeline for the computer he used the day before. "What the?"

"What is it?" Kairi wondered.

Sora held up a disk case. It was their movie.

"Did you forget it here yesterday?"

He scratched his head in confusion. "I don't remember."

She rolled her eyes. "I guess that solves that. Let's get to class."

He followed her out slowly. He distinctly remembered checking his backpack that morning for the movie. Was it just his imagination or was he day dreaming?

When English finally came along, the duo was eager to showcase their film. They watched it several times before burning the copy the other day and thought it was great.

"For our project, we made a movie about _Where Did All the Time in the World Go?_ Play it Sora."

He followed the command and pressed play. The DVD player was connected to a digital projector that shot the image on a pull down screen. The movie displayed logos they made up for the project.

_SoKaPeTi Productions Presents..._

The opening scene showed Tidus in bed. He was supposed to wake up but the scene suddenly cut. Instead of Tidus, it was Sora.

Sora and Kairi locked eyes in confusion. They didn't record anything like this. Even stranger, the angle was taken from outside looking in through the bedroom window. It was like spy camera footage.

The scene shifted again, but this time, it showed Kairi on her laptop. The same angle was used. It was from outside looking in her bedroom. The angle was impossible since their bedrooms were both on the second story. Unless there was a ladder or crane, the shot shouldn't have been possible.

This was not their movie any more.

"Sora, stop the video," she ordered.

He was already on it. He pushed the stop button but it had no effect. He pushed it again, repeatedly, but to no avail.

In the movie, Kairi was taken back by something on the computer and left her room. The scene shifted again, and this time, it was Kairi and Sora sitting next to each other on his bed.

She recognized the scene. "Stop it already!"

"I'm trying!" he yelled back.

"Is something wrong?" the teacher asked.

"This isn't our movie, somebody must've swapped the discs as a joke," Kairi hastily explained.

The class suddenly erupted in a loud noise.

Wondering why, Kairi turned around to see herself kissing Sora.

How was this possible? There was no way somebody could've recorded that night! "Sh-shut it off!"

The class started to protest.

_"No way!"_

_"We're just getting to the good part."_

_"I knew those two were together!"_

Tired of the gossip, Sora went over to the outlet and unplugged the projector.

Miraculously, it was still working, although it seemed to be dying, distorting the image and sound. The audio began to warp and made odd garbling and scratching noises. It was offensive to the ears.

The movie continued, showing Kairi kissing Sora on the bed. The video started skipping frames and giant digital artifacts started popping up. Kairi was about to take off her shirt when the scene cut. The projector went dark.

Kairi let out a sigh of relief although she was feeling both embarrassed and scared beyond relief.

Some of the students groaned in disappointment.

They thought the projector died but it suddenly started up again.

As if the previous footage didn't already scare the crap out of them, Sora and Kairi watched in horror as the projector played out a scene from yesterday.

It was the two of them in the computer lab when they were editing the movie. The angle was from the main hallway, but they didn't notice the camera at all. It showed Kairi getting scared from Sora's joke and his apologetic kiss.

Fed up, Sora covered the lens to block the display but it was unexpectedly hot, almost burning his hand. "Ah!"

"What's going on?" the teacher asked bewildered.

The class was started buzzing in confusion.

The scene shifted again, but this time, it was absolutely horrifying. For a split second, an image of Sora and Kairi's dead bodies flashed.

Despite its brevity, the picture of their lifeless corpses were burned into their minds.

The projector finally shut off.

Everyone was too shocked to respond.

Sora and Kairi stood frozen, unable to comprehend what just happened.


	23. Moogle Search

**Moogle Search**

Sora hated writing papers.

Especially research ones. It was a lot harder to BS a research paper than a regular one. He loved creative writing prompts since they were exercises in making up stuff, but a research paper? No such luck. Not only did the teacher want a bibliography attached to the end, but she wanted citations and attributions in the body text too. This was one of those rare cases where BSing was actually more work than just doing the paper normally.

Which was why he was in the library doing research. He could do it at home, but he would get too distracted. The library had internet filters that kept him on task. The filters blocked most of the social networking sites. He couldn't even check his Moogle+ account. The only thing he could search was the library directory and the electronic archives. They were mostly digital collections of journals, magazines, and newspapers.

He was supposed to write about some social issue, describe a problem, and offer solutions. He decided to tackle the topic of crime and punishment. It was obviously a very large field, so he was trying to narrow it down. He was thinking about drugs. It was a pretty big problem with many possible solutions. He knew of a couple guys who would just say, "legalize it."

The urge to goof off online was strong, despite the filters. Before he knew it, he absently-mindedly typed in Moogle in the newspaper database.

"Oops," he let out, chuckling. "Hm, I wonder what the search will turn up?"

He watched the browser loading icon do a couple spins in the corner. A list of links finally popped up. He scrolled through them quickly, most of them about the success of the Moogle search engine. He was about to close the window but a headline caught his eye:

**Suspect Arrested in Snatcher Case**

He raised an eyebrow. It was dated about seven years ago. What did that have to do with Moogles? He clicked on the link and it led him to a news article:

_**Destiny Islands Times**_

_Police have finally arrested a suspect in the Snatcher case where at least three children have gone missing since last March._

_When the first child, eight year-old **** ****** went missing on March 14th, police set on a three month-long search that turned up no leads. Following the first disappearance, eight year-old ***** ****** disappeared soon after on June 16. Then on August 28, nine year-old **** ****** disappeared. It was thanks to an anonymous tip in January that police found a car outside of Destiny Park that contained suspicious items, the most notable of which, was a large **Moogle** costume._

_Police have searched the suspect's home and officials have stated that the evidence proves, without of a doubt, that they caught the "Snatcher." The suspect gave himself up willingly once police arrived and confessed to murdering the children. Unfortunately, police have not been able to find their remains._

_The suspect refuses to disclose of the location of the bodies. _

_More details to follow pending investigation._

Sora shivered. Talk about hitting close to home. He played at Destiny Park many times as a kid. As morbid and grotesque this "Snatcher" case was, something about it drew him in.

He decided to poke around the research database for some more details.

**The Chilling Discovery in the Snatcher's Home**

That sounded very interesting. He clicked it.

_Nobody knew that in the quaint quiet neighborhood of Pacifica Lane lived a monster whose crimes sent shockwaves through the Islands. The string of child kidnappings last year resurrected an age old legend of a mysterious entity that whisked away children in times of fear. What was once fable has turned into reality, but sometimes, reality is colder, harsher, and more senseless than any scary story. _

_What greeted police in the Snatcher's unassuming home was the stuff of nightmares. One can only imagine the suffering the Snatcher's victims had to endure._

_Outwardly, the home looked normal, but the pleasant facade only hid the true horrors inside. When police broke open the entrance to the basement, they were first greeted with an overwhelming stench of blood. Further exploration led officers to a frigid room more accurately described as a "dungeon." Cold concrete floors and brick walls kept any sound from escaping. The ground was splattered in a crusty red veneer that painted a sick mural of misery. _

_In the corner were dog kennels where victims were allegedly imprisoned. Closer examination revealed that the inside of the kennel had exposed nails. Even in captivity, the victims suffered. There was no respite, only impending doom and constant pain. Close by were dog bowls which the Snatcher used to feed his victims. They were treated like animals._

_The center of the room was clearly the kill zone, considering the concentration of blood. What made it even more horrifying was that the kennels had a clear view of it. Victims were forced to watch the Snatcher's grisly acts. The victims were kept alive for the Snatcher's sick experiments where he performed mutilations and dismemberments._

_His motives are unclear, but the Snatcher had this to say about his depraved methods:_

"_It's just so easy. You know how easy it is? They're so small. You don't even have to try. They're like dolls. Just pluck out the limbs. See what's inside. Help them. Fix them. Replace the batteries. I didn't kill them. I saved them. I sent them someplace better. A place where they didn't need it. What did they need to see? Nothing. They don't need that useless stuff. It just gets in the way. So I take it away from them, make it easier for them to truly see. I cut out their ears. I take out their tongues. I remove their skin. They don't need it. They're in a better place now. If you dare disturb them, they will never find peace." _

_They were simply the ramblings of a psychotic mad man. Police have tried for months but they were never able to get the location of the bodies from him._

_Perhaps the most chilling discovery was a box that held the victims' belongings. Thanks to the box, the police were able to identify his victims, despite the missing bodies. Among the items were the victim's clothes, toys, and other personal effects._

_While most of the items were identified as belonging to either one of the three victims, two other items unearthed suggest there may have been more._

_These items included a chain necklace with a crown and a star-shaped accessory made out of Thalassa shells._

Sora reread that last line.

Then he read it again.

"Shit, shit, shit, SHIT." Whatever feelings of morbid curiosity were now replaced with complete terror. "What the fu—arghh!"

They had hoped that they remembered wrong, that the mysterious man wasn't a kidnapper, that he was actually a relative. They searched her name on the internet but never found her associated with a missing person's case. It was as if she never existed. That was the only thing that gave them hope that she was still out there but...

That hope was now crushed.

Sora pulled out his cell phone and looked at Kairi's number. He had to tell her.

He checked the archives for any more articles. He found another one dated a year later, which would make it five years ago.

**Snatcher Found Dead**

_The killer in the famous Snatcher case was found dead in his cell yesterday. Authorities say that he bit his tongue and bled to death. Before doing so, he left a message written in blood on the wall that said: _

_"save myself." _

_Even though he was sentenced to death, police were hoping they could figure out the location of his victims. The missing bodies still remain as a black mark over an investigation that has brought the perpetrator to justice. With this suicide, the police's only lead has now been lost forever. The news had brought mixed emotions to family of the victims. Although his death may bring some closure, family of the victims may never find true peace until the bodies are found._

He dialed Kairi's number.

"Hey. Where are you right now?

Can you come to the library?

There's something you need to see."


	24. Your Welcome

**Your Welcome**

Sora was looking through his locker when a hand grabbed his shoulders.

"WHAT'S GOING ON BUDDY!"

Sora jumped three feet in the air from the surprise. He turned around to face the offender. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

The offender was none other than Riku, his best friend not named "Kairi." He was tall, handsome, and mesmerizing with long silver hair that framed his finely chiseled face. His bright aqua eyes danced with mirth and amusement.

"I got you good!" he gloated, laughing at the brunet's display of aerial fear.

"Shut up," Sora warned. He wasn't in a good mood, considering the recent spate of terrifying events that followed him as of late.

"It's just a joke, man."

Sora slammed his locker shut. "What do you want?"

"I just wanted to extend you an invitation to my new place."

Riku had recently moved into an apartment room in preparation of college. It was a little early since he hadn't graduated yet, but he was itching to get out from underneath his parents' thumb. What enterprising young adult didn't want a place to himself?

"Your parents actually got you the apartment?" Sora asked disbelievingly.

"After all the rules and guidelines I had to sign off on, yeah." Riku was beaming. It was a large victory for his independence.

"So you're throwing a housewarming party?"

The silver-haired boy laughed. "Not yet. I need you to help me move some stuff."

"And the ulterior motive finally reveals itself."

Riku grinned. "I'll take that as a yes."

They spent the afternoon moving things from Riku's old room to his new apartment. They packed up his things in cardboard boxes, dumped them in the back of Riku's car, and drove it over to the new place.

The apartment didn't look like anything special, but the fact that it belonged to Riku alone made up for any lack of architectural flair. They were outdoor apartments. There were three buildings that formed a U over a courtyard. They carried the boxes up a flight of stairs to his new home.

After setting down a box, Sora gave himself a tour. Aside from a couch, there wasn't much furniture. The kitchen and living room were close to the entrance while a small hallway led to two bedrooms and a bathroom. He walked into the master and whistled. There was a balcony outside. He slid open the glass door and walked out, enjoying the sunshine. If it weren't for the trees, he would've had a perfect view of the town.

Wait, wasn't that—

"You gonna help me or chill out there?" Riku yelled.

Sora smirked to himself. "I'm coming!"

It took them twenty minutes but they finally finished moving everything. Sora dropped the last box of Riku's stuff on the living room floor. "Finally!" He looked at all the boxes that surrounded him. "Don't tell me you need me to set up all this junk for you?"

Riku walked in from the kitchen with a bottle in hand. "Only if you want to."

"Yeah right," he excused. "What's that you got?"

"A housewarming gift. I think we earned ourselves a celebratory drink, don't you think?"

Sora wasn't much of a drinker, but he could probably use one. "What kind is it?"

"Vodka."

After mixing the drink with various sodas and juices, they found themselves in a state of drunkenness. They were giggling like lunatics on the couch. Sora was able to forget about things for a fleeting moment.

"Riku, can I tell you something?"

"Ya…of course. What is it, man?"

Sora tried to make a serious face, but Riku ended up laughing. Ignoring his friend's rudeness, he continued, "But first, you have to absolutely positively promise not to tell anyone about this, okay?"

"Who do you think I am bro? Don't ya trust me?" Riku replied, grinning madly.

"Okay…then I guess I can tell you. Me and Kairi are official."

"HOLY SHIT," he yelled out, laughing maniacally.

Sora didn't appreciate it. "Can't you be serious here?"

"Oh man, congratulations! I knew it was going to happen sooner or later."

"That's not the point."

"How did it happen?"

Sora sighed. Riku didn't have the capacity to read people when he was drunk. He might as well go along with it. "She came to me when she was scared. That's when she confessed to me."

"That's like…from a fairy tale or something."

It really wasn't. "The thing is…she wouldn't tell me what scared her, what made her come over in the first place. I think…" Riku's head was lolling back and forth. "Never mind." Sora decided to get some water. He stumbled into the kitchen until he noticed a strange note on the counter.

It said:

**Yo CrUeL mEoW**

"Hey Riku, what the heck does _yo cruel meow_ mean?"

"Ionno," the high school senior slurred in response. "It was on my door when I first moved in."

"Weird..."

It was getting late and the buzz was staring to wear off.

The brunet pulled out his phone and checked the time. It was ten. "Crap. Do you think you can take me home?" he asked.

"Do you think I can actually do that?"

Sora stared at his friend, who was barely able to sit upright. There was no way he was driving. "Uh...you wouldn't happen to have a spare bed would you?"

Sora ended up calling his mom and let her know that he was sleeping over at Riku's new apartment.

Riku offered Sora his bed, since he was too drunk to get off the living room floor.

Sora walked into the master bedroom and saw a mattress in the corner. It wasn't really a bed but it would have to do. It was better than the floor at any rate. His body collapsed on it and he felt his mind drift away.

**YEEOOOUUGGGHHHOOOWWW**

A blood-curdling screech rang out from outside. It sounded horrible, an inhuman guttural yowl, like a cry from some foul abomination. The worst part of it? It came from right outside the glass door that led to the balcony. Something was right outside the room.

Sora slipped out of the bed quietly and eyed the curtains that covered the balcony door. He saw a shadow underneath.

Should he ignore it? He sat on the floor, carefully eying the unmoving shadow.

Enough of this!

He pulled the curtains aside and was met with two amber eyes.

"Uuaaaggghh!" Sora fell back in shock when the lights turned on.

"Dude, you totally shat your pants!" Riku laughed.

Sora looked closer and realized it was a cat. It was black with no collar. It opened its mouth, baring its sharp teeth, hissed, and jumped away. "When the hell did you get a cat?"

"It's not mine. I think it's the neighbor's or a stray. It scared the crap out of me the first night here too."

"I never knew a cat could sound so scary. Was that what the note was about?"

"I think so. Must be the neighbor's way of apologizing in advance." Riku gave the brunet a creepy smile. "So...you wanna share the bed? I can protect you from all the big bad scary monsters."

"Shut up."

The night passed with no further incident.

A couple days went by and Sora caught his friend in the hallway at school.

"Hey!" he called out.

Riku was in the middle of opening his locker before turning around. His face looked extremely tired with dark bags bleeding from his eyes.

"Whoa, you look terrible."

Riku sighed. "Yeah, I know. I haven't been able to get much sleep lately. Stupid cat's been making noises every night. It finally shut the hell up yesterday."

"Hah, I know the feeling."

Riku spun around, pulled his lock down, and opened the locker.

Riku let out a sharp gasp and stumbled backwards.

Sora covered his mouth in shock.

Inside the locker were the remains of the cat, a twisted mess of blood, black fur, and bones.

On the inside of the locker door was a message scrawled in red:

**YoUr WELCome**


	25. Deleted Message

**Subject**: PLEASE HELP

**From**: "zuib" ####****.***

**To**: kairiuchida destiny edu

**Options**: Reply | Delete | Forward

* * *

><p><em>kairi.<em>

_its me._

_i need your help._

_do you remember?_

_when we said goodbye?_

_i didnt mean it._

_but i had no choice._

_i was taken._

_to a dark place._

_cold._

_dirty._

_horrible._

_put in a cage._

_like an animal._

_saw others._

_they cried._

_a lot._

_made terrible noises._

_he took them._

_cut them._

_cut them._

_cut them._

_blood._

_everywhere.  
><em>

_until there was nothing._

_until they were swallowed._

_until it was dark._

_he did the same to me._

_no more.  
><em>

_im afraid._

_so afraid.  
><em>

_need your help._

_help me._

_help me._

_help me._

_im waiting._

_meet me._

_at the secret place._

_help me._

_**IMFRHTPIMF?**  
><em>

_why did you abandon me?_

_**UPI NOYVJ#**  
><em>

_HELP ME._

_**EJPTR#**  
><em>

_HELP ME._

_**GIVL UPI#**  
><em>

_HELP ME._

**_JR:{ R?_**

_**DSBR UPITDR:G?**_

_**HEL  
><strong>_


	26. Dead Doll

**Dead Doll**

Kairi was hanging out with her friend Selphie.

As anal as her mom was about safety, it wasn't like she was banned from going out with friends, just as long as she wasn't alone. It didn't always have to be Sora. He was just the most reliable escort since he lived next door.

They were doing some window shopping at Destiny Plaza, a shopping center in downtown. The place was known as the perfect marriage between big and small business. Between all the brand name mega stores were also independent shops. Somehow, they were able to coexist together.

Selphie was Kairi's best friend not named "Sora." Certain things can only be said between girls. They complemented each other well. Kairi's hard edge was offset by Selphie's bubbly vivacious demeanor, but she could be sickeningly sweet and idealistic at times.

Selphie was always a stickler for style. She often frowned upon any fashion faux pas and displayed her own sense, a combination of elegance and saccharine. Her brunette hair tapered off to the side, a childish cut that almost clashed with her provocative skirts, but she made it work.

They wandered into a trinket shop. Selphie was a sucker for charms and other superstitious junk. She lived with her head in the clouds, optimistic that favorable winds would blow and sweep her off her feet.

Kairi wondered how these small shops could survive selling obscure items and random stuff dug out the back of abandoned storage units. She examined racks of weird-looking statues of praying monks, tribal masks, and wooden figurines of extremely slim women. Were they supposed to be goddesses? There was a lot of stuff like that, small sculptures, pots, and items seemingly excavated from archeological digs. It was more of a museum than a store.

"How can I help you?"

They both turned to the counter where a middle-aged woman stood. She was the shopkeeper.

"Oh, we're just looking around," Kairi replied.

"For anything in particular?"

"Any love charms?" Selphie quipped.

The woman smiled gently. "I have just the thing." She pulled out a small doll from beneath the counter. It looked like an old rag doll with yellow yarn for hair and a patchy dress. It had a simple face, two black buttons for eyes and curved stitching for the mouth. "This is what you want."

The two girls looked at the item warily. It was not Selphie's style at all, but she was willing to give it a shot. "How does it work?"

The shopkeeper's smile was crooked. "This doll is a repository. It will take on all your worst traits but leave you with your best ones," she explained.

"How much?" the brunette asked.

Kairi gave her friend a confused look. "Are you serious?" It didn't take a genius to figure out that weird dolls being sold at weird shops was suspicious.

"Come on, it's not like it actually works, but charms have that positive psychological impact!" she replied cheerily.

"If you want, you can try it out for free," the shopkeeper interrupted. "If you don't like it, you can always return it."

"You hear that? Free."

Kairi shook her head. "Do whatever you want."

"I will!"

Kairi felt uneasy about the whole thing. Maybe it was because she grew up listening to Riku's ramblings which warped her mind to expect the worst out of every strange situation. The mysterious item sold at an odd shop was the set-up for many horror stories. She shrugged it off as unfounded paranoia. There was no reason to be worried. Right?

They were walking home as Selphie inspected her newly acquired doll. Despite its ragged appearance, the brunette was quite taken with it.

"Don't you find it creepy?" Kairi questioned.

"What are you talking about? It's cute in an old fashioned kind of way."

Kairi respectfully disagreed but kept it to herself.

As the week wore on, she began to notice changes in her friend's behavior. She was already very social, but something about her became even more magnetic. It was like she developed a slight sheen that made her sparkle. She didn't have to try as hard to get attention, it simply swarmed her.

"You see? Positive impact!" Selphie would yell delightedly.

Kairi wasn't so sure.

It was lunch time at school when she met up with Sora. They settled on a bench and ate their lunch as part of their ritual.

"Do you think something's off about Selphie?" the girl asked.

Sora absentmindedly stuffed his mouth with fries. He suddenly noticed Kairi giving him a curious stare. He quickly recovered, "Sorry, I wasn't listening. There's a lot on my mind lately. Did you hear? Tidus got arrested."

Kairi recoiled in shock. "For what?"

Sora gave a dull stare. "I'm not sure myself..." he muttered. "What's wrong with Selphie?" he asked, changing the subject.

Kairi was itching to learn more but returned to the matter at hand. She could always talk about Tidus later. "You haven't noticed? She's more popular now."

"She's always been popular," he excused.

"This is different, it's hard to describe..."

"If you're worried, then the best thing to do is look after her," he suggested.

It was sound advice, if a bit obvious. "Thanks, I'll do that. Do you mind if I visit her after school today?"

He grinned. "Of course I mind. It means I don't get to spend time with my girl."

She chuckled. "I'll make it up to you later."

"It's a promise then," he declared, winking.

Later that day, Kairi met Selphie at her locker. "Hey," she greeted.

The brunette turned around and smiled brightly. "Kairi! What's up?"

"You think I can come over today?"

"Sure. What's the reason?"

"No reason," she lied.

"Just a friendly visit?"

"I'm a little worried," she admitted.

"About what?"

Kairi wanted to say "you" but thought better of it. "Sora."

Selphie's eyes gleamed. It was the kind of topic she loved to talk about. "Ooh, trouble in paradise?"

The redhead smiled awkwardly. "Something like that."

"Sure. I don't mind!" she replied happily.

Sora's news hung over her head. "Did you hear? Tidus got arrested," Kairi informed solemnly.

The news didn't seem to faze the girl. "Oh really? Isn't he always joking around? I bet it was for something stupid."

Kairi tilted her head. "Aren't you worried?"

"These days, there's not much to worry about. It's better to be optimistic," she advised. "I'm sure whatever trouble Tidus is in will blow over soon enough."

"Um…about your doll…" she shifted, changing the conversation. "Where is it exactly?"

"What doll?" Selphie rebuffed. She didn't show any indication of lying.

"The one that we got from the weird shop three days ago. The rag doll?"

Selphie giggled. "I don't know what you're talking about."

The bell rang.

"I'll see you later Kai Kai!"

Kairi stood there, mystified by her friend's responses. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She kept telling herself that she was making a big deal out of nothing.

After school, the two girls headed for Selphie's home. They made some small talk but every time Kairi tried to bring up the doll, Selphie practiced ignorance—whether it was intentional or genuine, Kairi couldn't tell. They reached the front lawn when Selphie stopped.

"Do you mind giving me a couple minutes? I have to check the house real quick."

"Huh? For what?"

"I forgot I might have some visitors today," she recalled, rubbing her chin. "Let me make sure first."

"Uh…sure."

The brunette girl bounced over to the front door and disappeared inside.

Kairi waited by the lawn. She looked up at the sky and felt the sun's fury against her skin. She found a big tree off to the side, walked over to it, and cooled off under the shade. After waiting for several minutes, she decided to enter the house but Selphie came out.

"Sorry Kai, but I've got some visitors. Maybe next time?"

It wasn't a satisfactory answer. "Who's visiting?" she probed.

"Relatives." Something was off about the answer. The driveway was empty.

"Why are you trying to get me to leave?" she accused. "What's wrong?"

Selphie was offended. "Who says I'm trying to get you to leave? I'm being serious here. You can't visit right now, okay? It's not a good time."

"To hell with that." Ignoring her friend's pleas, Kairi bounded up to the front porch and entered. She was immediately met with curious gazes inside the living room. She recognized the faces as Selphie's relatives from old photos.

Selphie's mom spotted her. "Kairi? Can I help you?"

She was turning red from embarrassment. "Oh…oh, no, it's nothing. Sorry for intruding," she excused. She turned around and left the house, meeting Selphie outside.

"I told you so," the brunette admonished.

"I'm sorry," she quickly apologized. "I thought you were hiding something."

"What do I have to hide? Anyways, don't worry about it. Just come over tomorrow, okay? It should be fine then."

After another apology, Kairi left.

She went over to Sora's that night and told him what happened.

"I felt so embarrassed," she confessed.

Sora squeezed her hand. "You shouldn't be. You were just looking out for her."

"Do you think that I'm over thinking things?"

"These days, there's no such thing as being too careful. Just watch your back. I care about you too much."

His words made her feel warm. "Thanks…"

"Now then…didn't you make me a promise?"

She giggled. "I did, didn't I?"

The next day came but Selphie didn't show up to school. Kairi waited the whole day but Selphie never came. If she wasn't worried yesterday, she definitely was now. She asked Sora to come with her to Selphie's house after school ended.

When they got close to the house, Sora stopped in his tracks.

"What is it?" Kairi asked.

"Son of a bitch," he cursed. He walked up to the tree that Kairi had taken shade under yesterday. "It's a Gaologu tree. I saw the same damn thing at Tidus' house too. Now that I think about it, there's also another one at Pence's." He scanned the trunk until he found it. It was a symbol etched into the bark.

Kairi followed the boy and saw it. "That's it! The symbol I was talking about that one day," she gasped. "What does it mean?"

"I think it means we should invite ourselves in." The two locked eyes and nodded.

They walked up to the front door and Kairi was about to ring the bell when they noticed the door was slightly ajar. That was not a good sign.

"I'll look in Selphie's room," Kairi alerted.

Sora nodded back and began searching the living room.

Kairi walked up the stairs and looked at the hallway. Something about it was eerie. The air was too still and everything was quiet. She quickly made her way to Selphie's room and opened the door.

It was empty.

But there was something on the bed. She got closer to see what it was.

It was the doll.

But it looked different. The hair was no longer yellow, but brown. The buttons were replaced with green ones, and the new dress it was wearing looked suspiciously a lot like the one Selphie was wearing yesterday.

"Kairi."

She dropped the doll in surprise. "Damn it Sora, you scared me!"

He raised his hands to calm her down. "Sorry."

"What's that in your hand?" she asked.

It was a photo frame. "This is why I came up here. You said you recognized the relatives from these pictures right?" He showed her the photo. There were five men in it. They looked respectable and ready to set off on some kind of journey. Kairi had asked Selphie about it one time and she answered that they were old relatives.

"That's right."

He arched a brow. "But that's impossible."

"What are you talking about?" she asked. The way he said it scared her.

"These people in the pictures…they're all dead."

Yesterday's events flashed in her mind again. She definitely saw them. They were in that room, no doubt about it. "What? Don't joke with me, Sora!"

He shook his head gravely. "These aren't her relatives either. I've seen this photo before…at the school." He pointed to one of the men. "This man right here…do you remember when I told you about that time in the study room? That was him. Right here."

She looked at the man in the image and he was just as Sora described: gnarled face, deep wrinkles, pointed ears, and unsettling eyes. "But then...what does this all mean?"

"I don't know. I've searched the whole house and there's nobody here. It's like everybody's disappeared."

Kairi looked down and saw the doll by her feet. Its green eyes stared back, as if mocking and giggling at her.

She kicked it away in frustration.


	27. Sniggers

**Sniggers**

Sora stared.

It was the entrance to Pence's room. The door was brown, made out of tough wood, with wavy patterns painting the surface and a metal knob that wouldn't twist or turn. It was no more than a couple inches thick, but it was enough to sever the bedroom completely from the outside world. From the front yard, the bedroom window was covered with curtains. Trying to peek under the door would only reveal a towel stuffed between the gaps.

Sora had come to visit after school to make sure that Pence was alright after receiving such a cryptic link the other day. He wanted to know if it was some kind of joke but Pence never showed up for class. When Pence's mom greeted him, she said the boy was "ill" and locked himself in his room. Something told him that she was just making an excuse. She probably had no idea what the hell was really going on.

**knock, knock, knock**

"You in there? Pence! What's with the story? What's this deleting crap you posted?" he interrogated. He hammered on the door a couple more times but there was no response. It was the same with all phone calls, text messages, and emails. The only reply he got was blank space. It was a little unnerving, extremely suspicious, and incredibly worrisome.

Pence's mom poked her head into the hallway with an expectant face. She was hoping that Sora's presence could budge her son, but she was disappointed with his solemn head shake.

The brunet's cell phone started ringing. It was a call from Tidus. "Hello?"

"Sora! There's something I need some help with. Do you think you can come over?" Tidus' voice pleaded. It sounded desperate.

Although Tidus' house was several blocks away, it was on the way home. "What's wrong?"

"Just come on over, there's something you have to see."

The line went flat.

Sora looked at the phone and sighed. What now? He stuffed the device into his pockets and turned to Pence's mom. "Sorry that I couldn't get your son out," he apologized.

"It's okay, I'm sure he'll come out in due time. Thank you for visiting." The woman led the boy out.

He walked out to the sidewalk and gave the house one last look.

Did the curtain just move?

He pushed the thought aside and headed over to Tidus' place.

It took some time but Sora reached his destination. Before he could knock on the door, it opened to reveal a panicked Tidus.

"You're here!" Tidus reached out and dragged the other boy in.

"What the hell's going on?" Sora asked, shaking off the blitzball player's grip.

"I-I have something to show you." Tidus ran up the stairs before Sora could ask any more questions.

Despite the bizarre circumstances, he had no choice but to follow. He went up the steps, walked down the hallway, and looked inside Tidus' room.

"Come inside and close the door," the blond ordered. He was sitting on the bed.

Sora complied. He noticed a bundle of towels in Tidus' arms. "What's that in your hand?" The bundle suddenly snickered. Sora backed up a few steps. "What the hell?"

Tidus unwrapped the towels to reveal some kind of doll. It was a ball of fur with big cartoonish eyes and a yellow beak. It had two rabbit stumps for legs. Its eyes turned to Sora and it started snickering again.

"What the hell is that thing?" Sora yelled.

"Shhhh," Tidus tried to shush. "Don't be so loud! It's okay, it doesn't attack people."

Doesn't attack people? What _did_ it attack then? A million questions were flying through his mind. When did Tidus suddenly discover a new species of fur balls? He eyed the weird creature carefully. "Is it real?"

Tidus set it on the floor and it crumpled into a ball on its own and started rolling around. It would be comical if it wasn't for the strange circumstances. What the hell was it and why did it suddenly appear?

Sora shot Tidus a serious look. "Explain."

Tidus watched as the little animal bounced off a wall and continued rolling. "I found it a couple days ago in my yard. I kept hearing these weird snickering noises from the bushes so I decided to check it out. I thought it was some kind of lost toy at first but when I grabbed it, I realized it was definitely alive. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen so I...decided to keep it as a pet."

The story made sense given Tidus' personality. Cute things were always his weakness. "I would've called animal control or the news. What if it's dangerous?" Sora cautioned.

"I don't see how it can be dangerous. It has no claws or sharp teeth. I thought it would be okay if I took him in."

"Does anybody else know about it?"

Tidus shook his head. "You're the first."

"Why me?"

The blond scratched his cheek. "You're reliable. I just remembered that one time with the bed."

Sora recalled that incident. It made no sense at all. All he did was cut up a perfectly good mattress. There was nothing inside. They got rid of it and the nightmares stopped. "I didn't even do anything," he rebuffed. "And I don't see what that has to do with this."

"There's been a problem with Sniggers."

"Sniggers?"

"Oh yeah, that's what I named it, because it makes those weird noises." As if on cue, it sniggered again. It was an odd but appropriate name.

Sora eyed the rolling creature suspiciously. "What's the problem?"

"I thought it wasn't dangerous but...I'm not so sure. Look in my backyard."

Sora walked over to the window and looked down. There were mounds of freshly dug up dirt everywhere. "What is that?"

"Graves."

Sora spun around. "Graves?" he echoed incredulously.

Tidus nodded shamefully. "They're dead animals. I buried them myself." Things just got more interesting by the minute. "Ever since I took on Sniggers, dead animals have been appearing on my lawn. Even though I keep the windows and door closed, every morning, I see Sniggers outside with the bodies."

"Is it a predator?" He suspected it could be hunting them.

"I don't know," the blond answered miserably. "I tried to feed it regular food and it ate it just fine. The first time I found it outside, it was with a dead bird. I didn't think much of it, but the animals started getting bigger. Next was a squirrel, then a possum, and today...it was a dog."

"Shit. Did it belong to somebody?"

He nodded wearily. "My neighbor down the street."

"Where is it? The dog's body?"

"In my yard..."

It was the absolute worst place he could've buried it. "Are you stupid? If anybody finds it here—"

"I know! But what else am I supposed to do? It's not like I could walk out there with a dead dog in my arms!"

He had a point. Sora was about to reply when Sniggers bumped into his foot. It unfurled itself from the ball and its big eyes looked up. They slanted and its beak became abnormally large.

"Argghhh!" A sharp pain coursed through his leg. The creature was biting him. "Get it off me!"

"Sniggers!" Tidus ran over and pulled the creature off.

Sora looked down at his leg and saw a small cut where its beak had torn the flesh. It was only a surface wound but it hurt like hell. "Damn it! That thing is too dangerous!"

Sniggers was cowering in Tidus' hands. "It didn't mean to do it, it was just an accident!"

The brunet searched for a random piece of cloth and grabbed a sock off the floor, wrapping it around his injury.

"You need help with that?" Tidus offered.

Sora glared. "I can take care of it myself. Look, just lock that damn thing up somewhere and meet me in the yard. Our first priority is moving that dog."

"Okay...the first aid kit is in the bathroom."

"Thanks." Sora left the room and hobbled over to the bathroom. He opened the medicine cabinet and found the first aid kit. He disinfected his wounds and bound it with a proper bandage. "Sorry for leaving a bloody sock," he chuckled to himself. He tossed it in the hamper. He flexed his feet and deemed it fit.

He heard a shriek outside.

Sora quickly made his way down the stairs and ran to the backyard. Tidus was standing over Sniggers with a bloody shovel in his hand. "What the hell happened?"

Tidus turned around in a daze. "It—it attacked me! I had to defend myself!" He was losing composure.

"Calm down!" Sora commanded. He walked up to the shocked boy and observed the scene. If there was any doubt that Sniggers wasn't real, it disappeared with the sight of its bloody carcass. Unless toys had bones and organs, it was definitely alive—or at least it used to be. "Damn…probably for the best."

The words didn't comfort Tidus. "What do we do now?"

Sora had no clue. Bury it? Tell the police? It wasn't as if they lacked evidence. His eyes wandered around the yard until they hit a familiar target. "Don't tell me—that's a Gaologu tree?" This couldn't be coincidence. He turned around to ask Tidus some questions but he was nowhere to be found. The bloody shovel was left on the ground. "Tidus?" He finally spotted him by the house. "What are you doing?" he asked, walking up to him.

"Someone's knocking on the door," the blond answered.

**knock, knock, knock**

"This is the police! Please open the door!" a voice yelled.

Tidus turned to Sora in fear. He mouthed "_what now_?"

"Just open it. Tell them the whole story. We have proof," he reassured.

He didn't seem to believe it, but followed the directive anyway. The door opened and two officers were on his doorstep. They looked intimidating. "Are you Tidus Zanarkand?"

The blond nodded meekly.

The officer raised a document. "We have a warrant to search the premises." He caught sight of Sora. "And who are you?"

"I'm just a friend. My name is Sora."

"I'm going to have to ask both of you to wait outside." The two boys were escorted out the front door. The second officer kept an eye on them while the other searched the house.

The air was thick with tension. Tidus practically thickened the atmosphere with his nervousness. It was distracting Sora from his thoughts of the Gaologu tree. He was seeing them all over the place now. Did it have some kind of significance?

The officer searching the house finally emerged holding a shovel. "Call the animal control. Tell them they got clean up duty. Tidus Zanarkand?"

"Y-yes?"

"You're under arrest for animal cruelty."

"W-wait! I can explain!"

"No need," the officer cut off. "We have all the evidence we need including eyewitness testimony."

"Eyewitness?" he repeated in confusion.

"Your neighbors saw you steal a dog and kill him with a shovel. With the shovel in my hand and the graves in the backyard—face it kid, you're going to jail."

"No, wait, that's not true! What about Sniggers?" Tidus was acting erratic, putting the cops on guard.

"Do not move and put your hands up!"

Sora could only stand there, mesmerized by the events. Was this real life? Was this actually happening?

"No! Look! There's this creature back there. Didn't you see it?" He made a move towards his house but that prompted the officer to tackle him.

"Get down, RIGHT NOW!" The officer planted his knee on Tidus' neck, effectively immobilizing him.

"But what about Sniggers? WHAT ABOUT SNIGGERS?"

"What the hell are you on about kid? Are you high? There's nothing back there but dead animals and a stuffed doll!" the officer rebutted.

"What…? No, that's impossible! Tell him Sora!"

Sora watched helplessly. Something told him that if he made a sudden move, an officer would tackle him. It took all his willpower to take one step, but it was enough to launch him into a run.

"Hey! Get that kid!"

Sora ignored the warnings and sprinted into the house and out to the backyard.

To his horror, he saw Sniggers…but instead of blood and bone fragments, there was only cotton. He was so shocked; he didn't notice he was tackled until he was eating grass. Metal rungs clicked around his wrists. His eyes remained fixed on the mutilated stuffed animal as he was pulled back. Had he imagined it all?

Tidus admitted to killing the animals and absolved Sora of any responsibility.

"Did the eyewitness say anything about a brown-haired kid?"

The other officer shook his head. "Nope. His story checks out."

The feeling of cold metal suddenly loosened up when the cuffs were removed. "Alright kid, you're free to go, but here's a word of advice: it's generally not a good idea to run when police are around," the cop warned. "Now get out of here." He gave the boy a hard shove in the back.

Sora massaged his wrists and walked away. The animal patrol had shown up and started collecting the carcasses. Tidus gave him one last forlorn stare before being driven away in a squad car.

There was no more reason to stick around. Sora got as far as two blocks before sitting down on the curb. He felt the bandage on his leg. His wound was still there.

Damn it.

Damn it!

DAMN IT!

His face sank into his hands. He couldn't take this any more. Nothing made sense.

Kairi…

He needed her now.

He couldn't wait to get home and be with her. She was the only good thing in his life. The incidents were starting to escalate. First it was the stupid video project. They still had no idea what happened or who did it. They ended up burning a new disc and had the teacher grade it privately. Pence shut himself in his room all of sudden. Then there was the damned cat stuffed in Riku's locker. And now Tidus is in police custody... He also recalled Kairi voicing her concerns about Selphie as well. Something about a creepy doll. Was there no end to these incidents? He pushed himself up off the ground. He should seek outside help. Maybe shoot his cousin an email.

He suddenly started checking his immediate surroundings.

"What the…?"

There was nothing.

"I'm just getting crazy," he excused.

But just to make sure, he scanned the area again.

He could've sworn he heard snickering...


	28. Neighbors

**Neighbors**

Sora stood by a metal gate.

He was waiting for Kairi after school. He watched as students poured out in clumps. The school had issued warnings and advised all students to travel in groups. The attendance rate was steadily decreasing and classes were becoming more of a ghost town. He couldn't blame them. The crime rate was soaring in astronomical numbers, but he didn't agree with staying at home. Not going to school would be a form of admitting defeat. He wouldn't give into the fear, and besides, keeping a normal schedule did wonders for psychological stability.

He thought he was a special case, but after checking out the Kupo Boards, accounts of paranormal activity became the _only_ topic of discussion. Whatever was happening, it was happening everywhere. He was worried about his cousin Roxas. After the last email he sent, he never got a response.

"You got any free time right now?" Riku asked, approaching casually with hands stuffed into his pockets.

Sora leaned back and looked at the sky. "I'm kind of waiting for Kairi right now…" he excused.

Riku smiled in disappointment. "Ever since you two became official, it's like you got no time for your other friends."

"What other friends? They're all gone," he muttered darkly.

Riku rubbed his neck tiredly. He was also affected by their mysterious disappearances, but at least Sora and Kairi had each other, he didn't even have anybody. "I'm still here."

Sora regretted his words. "I didn't mean—"

His cell phone rang, stopping his speech. His ears focused on the ringtone.

"You going to get that?"

"You're still my best friend. That won't change," Sora declared. He pulled out the phone and answered it, "Kairi?"

Riku crossed his arms and watched quietly.

"You're going to spend that night at Nami's? No… That's fine. Okay. I'll see you tomorrow then. I do too. Bye."

Sora hung up and smiled at Riku.

"Guess today's your lucky day, my schedule just cleared up. What do you need me for?"

Riku grinned.

They started walking towards the parking lot since Riku drove a car. "I think I figured out who put the dead cat in my locker."

Sora's face darkened considerably. That was the first time Riku confronted something ripped out of his stories. It bothered him that Riku didn't seem to have any strange encounters until he moved into that apartment. The timing was a little suspicious. "What is it?"

"When I first moved in, I greeted my neighbors, but the room to my right was vacant. I asked the landlord about it but he said that there was no one living there."

There was more to this story. "So what's the kicker?"

"Well…when I put my head against the wall, I can definitely hear sounds in there—footsteps and whispering. I told the landlord about it but he doesn't believe me. He says it's just my imagination. The guy didn't even bother to open up the room to prove me wrong."

"You think there's somebody living there?"

"Not only that, but I think he's the one who pulled the prank." It didn't sound right. Why would some random stranger in the next apartment decide to do something like that? He would have to figure out many things, such as where Riku went to school and his locker combination. Would someone go through all that trouble for the sake of a horrid joke?

They reached the car and Riku unlocked the doors. Sora opened it and took the passenger-side seat. "You want to take matters into your own hand?"

Riku shut his door and put the key in the ignition. "Do you have to ask?"

"I suppose not."

It was a short drive to the apartment. In no time, they were squared up in Riku's quarters planning their next move.

"I hope you have an idea of what we're going to do," Sora advised. A small part of him wanted to jump online and see what the latest headlines were. The days had a strange feel to them lately. It was like tomorrow would never come.

Riku snorted unappreciatively. "Who do you think I am? I got it all planned out."

"Oh? Would you mind sharing this plan with me then?"

"Sure, just follow me." Riku led the other boy out to the balcony.

It hit Sora like a lightning bolt. "Are you serious?"

"What? I didn't even say anything yet!"

It was pretty obvious. "You want to jump to the other balcony."

"Not exactly…"

Did he guess wrong?

"You're the one jumping."

Sora stared dully. Was he actually serious? "You've got to be kidding me. Why don't you do it?"

Riku rolled his eyes. "Come on, can't you just do it? It's only several feet. You can totally do it," he urged.

"You didn't answer my question."

"Because I'm freaked out okay!" he yelled. "That cat was the first time that—it scared the shit out of me. I hate to admit it but you've got thicker skin than me. I…I can't do it myself. Sorry for being selfish, but you're the only one I can ask."

He didn't expect Riku to be so…afraid. He was always the stalwart of scary, the teller of terror, the communicator of creepy, but for him to crumble in the face of true horror—it was unprecedented.

They still haven't even told him about Xion either.

But that's still no excuse to make him do a dangerous jump. One wrong move and it's broken ankles. He'd rather face Sniggers again than leap. "Sorry, but I can't risk my life for—"

Sora caught sight of it.

Unbelievable.

There it was, the Gaologu tree, sitting right in the yard. His eyes went to the apartment. They had to be connected somehow. This was it, a chance to blow this mystery wide open, or at least gather more pieces of the puzzle.

"Fine."

"What?" Riku blurted out.

"I'll do it," Sora confirmed.

"W-why?"

"I have a feeling that there are answers in there." He leaned his arms against the railing. "The last couple days, I've been putting together a theory. All I have are fragments, so it's hard to put together something concrete, but I have an idea."

"What are you talking about?" His voice was nervous.

Sora pointed to the tree. "You see that right there? It's called a Gaologu tree. I've noticed that all my encounters with the paranormal have happened around it."

"Encounters with the paranormal?"

"I wrote a paper about the tree—no, that's not right—I wrote an essay about the _Island That Never Was_. Did you ever read about that?"

"Yeah, it's that island where all the people in town just disappeared right?"

Sora nodded. "It's where Gaologu trees grow natively, but the thing is, all the trees went extinct hundreds of years ago. The ones that are popping up now are the product of genetic reengineering from old seeds."

Sora wasn't making much sense. What did trees have to do with anything? Riku was completely confused. "What does it mean?"

"I think these trees are some kind of…gateway."

Riku narrowed his eyes. "A gateway to what?"

"Another world? Hell? I don't know. I think what happened with the _Island that Never Was_ is happening now."

"Are you saying we're all going to disappear?" he asked worriedly.

It was the strongest possibility in his mind. "I don't know, but I'm going to find out." He gripped the edge of the railing and climbed up, steadying himself until he was in position. "Once I get inside, I'll unlock the door for you."

"Okay."

"No time like the present." He didn't bother to look down, because the first rule was to never look down. He extended his legs and launched himself across the gap into the adjacent balcony. He landed roughly and used the momentum to spin his body to minimize impact. He slid across the floor and hit the opposing railing.

"You alright!" Riku shouted.

Aside from a couple scratches and a shoulder ache, he was fine. He stood up and raised his hands. "I'm okay."

"Do you see anything?"

Sora looked into the glass but curtains covered the view. He gripped the sliding door handle and pulled.

It was unlocked.

"I think I can get in." He pulled it all the way to the side.

Riku smiled out of relief. "Okay, I'll see you on the other side."

Sora nodded and entered the apartment.

Darkness covered every inch of the room. It was hard to see anything. Sora grabbed the curtains and pulled them aside to let much-needed sunlight in.

He stumbled backwards in surprise. "My god…"

Scrawled all over the walls, the ceiling, and the floor was the _symbol_, a heart with three fins at the bottom and a barbed cross in the middle. The room was dim but he could see it clearly. Some were scratched into the wall, others were drawn with a marker, and others looked like it was made from blood. The walls were almost painted black with them.

He kept backing up until his leg hit a mattress and he fell back. He landed softly against the bed but something was off. He looked down and noticed that the bed was torn open, exposing the material underneath. It looked like somebody cut it up with a knife.

No way. That was impossible.

He pushed himself off the bed and went towards the middle. The room was empty except for the mattress and the etchings. The walls were stripped of paint and the flooring was bare. Everything was stripped down and exposed. He had a real bad feeling about this.

He walked up to the walls and noticed other markings mixed in with the symbol. They were short phrases.

"Save yourself," he read. The messages were mostly the same, variants of "saving" oneself. He kept hearing that expression over and over. What did it mean? He took out his cell phone and turned on the camera. He snapped several shots of the walls for evidence.

His eyes landed on the bedroom door. Could there be somebody here? He slowly walked over to it and twisted the knob, pushing it lightly and peeking in.

It was completely dark.

He opened the door wider to let in some light but it didn't reach far. It was the living room. There was no furniture. It was just a vacant apartment space. He scanned the walls for any light switch panels.

He found one.

He went over to it and flipped the switch. Nothing happened. "Damn it." There was no electricity. He should've asked Riku for a flashlight beforehand. He pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight. It wasn't strong but it would have to do. A small cone of light shined in the direction he pointed. He looked over the floors, the walls, and the ceilings. Unlike the bedroom, all the surfaces were clean from vandalism.

He flashed the light around the room until a piece of wall glittered. It was a poster reflecting light. He walked closer to examine it.

It was a map.

It wasn't just any map though; it was a map of Destiny Islands. Pushpins marked certain points.

Wait…

The pushpins were on his house. Not only that, but they were on his friends' houses as well: Pence's home, Tidus', Selphie's, Naminé's, and the apartment itself! What was this?

No…

It couldn't be... He connected the pushpins on the map and saw it.

It made the symbol.

And his house was right in the middle of the X.

His cell phone light began to sputter. "No! Don't go out on me!"

It went out, plunging him into darkness.

It didn't matter if he opened or closed his eyes, the image would remain the same: infinite blackness. The bedroom door that he left open disappeared. When did it close? He stumbled blindly, feeling his way through the living room.

He forgot; he was supposed to unlock the front door.

**step, step, step **

He froze, his blood icing from chills.

**step, step, step**

He mentally cursed repeatedly. He held his breath and lowered his body towards the ground.

**creeaakk…**

He held his tongue and dragged himself across the floor, looking for a wall to back up against.

"_Ss…ye…ffff…_" It was a low whisper.

Something in his brain just snapped. He tried to hold in his fear but it was beginning to leak out. He couldn't let it take over now. His heart was pounding out of his chest and cold sweat poured down his head. His beating heart was extraordinarily loud to his ears.

"_Ssaaa…ffuuu…_"

His back finally hit a wall. He began sliding against it, towards the front door.

"_Shaaa…suu…_" The whisper was getting closer. It didn't make any sense. How was it getting closer if there weren't any footsteps?

"_Save…yourself…_"

It was right in his ear.

He shot up and sprinted blindly towards the front door.

"Fuck!" He fiddled with the knob and tried to unlock it. "Goddamnit, unlock already!" His fingers finally found the lock and he twisted it. The door opened like a breath of fresh air and he slammed the door shut behind him as quickly as he could.

He breathed in hard, each gasp a draught of life. He looked around. It was still daytime but...

There was no Riku in sight.

He pushed himself off the door and knocked on Riku's apartment. "RIKU! Open the door!" He twisted the knob and it opened easily. He poked his head in. "Riku…?" He walked in and searched the entire apartment but there was no Riku to be found. Where was he?

His phone went off; the text message tone repeating one after the other like a death siren. He pulled it out and looked at the screen. They were all texts from Riku:

**Where are you?**

**Open the door already.**

**What's wrong?**

**I'm getting the landlord**

**You're not here? Where did you go? **

**DUDE, WHERE ARE YOU?**

**I called your house but you're not there**

**Look, when you get this, call me as soon as you can**

**This isn't funny**

**Fuck you, seriously**

**I'm being serious here, where are you?**

**Sa**

**SAVEYOURSELF SAVEYOURSELF SAVEYOURSELF  
><strong>

He dropped the phone on the last text. "Shit. How long was I gone?" He picked it up again and checked the time. Only twenty minutes passed since he went in.

No…

That was wrong.

It was the next day.

An entire day passed while he was in there?

He dialed Riku's number. He had to find out what was going on.

The speaker beeped. "_Sorry, but all cell phone service has temporarily been suspended..._"

"Are you serious?" He looked around for a landline but remembered that Riku didn't bother to pay for one. "A whole day has passed," he said to himself. "What could happen in that much time? Wait...Kairi! I have to find her!" She was the first priority. Forget the apartment, forget the trees, he had to make sure she was safe first.

He ran towards the kitchen and rifled through the drawers.

Found it!

Riku's car keys. "Sorry man, but I'm going to be borrowing this."

He grabbed it and ran out of the apartment. He flew down the stairs and headed towards the car in the parking lot. He could hear countless sirens in the background. He took a moment and looked at the sky.

"Oh my god." Several columns of smoke were rising from the city. He finally noticed his surroundings. On the roads were abandoned cars, some with their doors wide open. Broken glass, debris, and garbage were strewn all over the streets. It was like a tornado had ripped through the town.

But the most unsettling part of the scene was…

There was not a single person outside.

Was this really the end of the world?

"I refuse to believe this is happening!"

He sprinted to Riku's car, got inside, crammed the keys into the ignition, and twisted, bringing the engine to life.

"Kairi…I'm coming for you."


	29. Lost and Found

**Lost and Found**

Where did all the time in the world go?

It was just like the book. He lost a day and time stopped. The world was frozen in its tracks. Nothing moved.

Except for him.

He swerved out of the way, avoiding the parked car, and continued speeding through the streets. Immobile vehicles served as obstacles that tested his nerves and reflexes. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, ensuring complete control. Even though he didn't have his license, it didn't matter. There was nobody outside anyway.

He was driving Riku's car through abandoned streets to reach Kairi as quickly as possible. The radio was on but there was only static. He kept flipping through the stations until he could find the emergency broadcast.

There was none.

The town was in tatters; vehicles were turned over, streets signs were knocked down, and small fires smoldered. It was the aftermath of a riot. Broken bottles, riot shields, and discarded clothing decorated the ground, painting a picture of mass panic, unrest, and heavy resistance.

Then he heard it.

A whirring from the sky. He looked up and saw helicopters in the distance.

Finally, a sign of life!

"**SHIT!**"

All it took was one lapse in concentration to send him flying through the front lawn of a random home. His foot slammed on the brakes and the car bounced furiously like a wild bronco trying to buck its rider. He heard a loud **THUD** and his head snapped forward, almost hitting the steering wheel.

**CCCRSSHKK!**

…

Everything stopped.

The constant beeping of the dashboard kept him conscious, but it was the smell of burnt rubber and oil that moved him into action. He pulled his body back and unbuckled the belt. He could feel a bruise forming on his chest, the imprint of the seat belt strap. The windshield was splattered with dirt. He turned on the wipers to clear it up, but it smeared his view instead. He turned off the engine and stumbled out. An ugly jagged trail was made by the tires when the car careened off road. The metal exterior was warped, dinged, and dented by the impact.

"Sorry Riku." He scanned his surroundings. It was only one block to Naminé's house. He broke into a run. The ruined scenery passed by as he dodged abandoned cars, bags of refuse, and garbage bins.

Naminé's house came into view. He ignored the Gaologu tree off to the side and ran up to the porch. He let himself in without bothering to knock—the door was unlocked anyways. He entered the home and something caught his eye. In the living room were five paintings face down.

Curious, he stood them up and saw the same exact picture in each frame. It was a portrait of a forest tree line with a girl in white in the far background. She resembled Naminé but the figure was too small to tell. He brushed the matter aside and continued his search of the bottom floor. Finding nothing, he moved upstairs. All of the doors were open except for one:

Naminé's.

He went up to it, grabbed the knob, and twisted. It wasn't locked, but there was a lot of resistance. It was like somebody poured glue in the locking mechanism. He used both hands to turn it. It budged slowly, rewarding his efforts with incremental give.

"Come on!" He had to break through; Kairi was waiting for him on the other side. She had to be! He put in all his might and it suddenly gave way. "Yes!" He pushed it as hard as he could and slammed the door against its hinges. He was eagerly awaiting the sight of Kairi, but what greeted him instead was a sleeping bag on the floor and an empty bed.

No...

Was he too late?

He took a few steps forward when his senses told him to **DODGE**. He shifted his body, narrowly avoiding a thrown object.

**SHATTER!**

The pieces of a broken lamp lay on the ground.

"SORA!" Arms wrapped around him from behind. Kairi's presence suddenly filled his senses; her warmth spreading to his body, her scent tickling his noise, and her voice easing his worries.

"Kairi..." He turned around and saw her face. To see it after so much worry...she was beautiful. He embraced her, hugging with every ounce of care he had for her. His hands massaged her back soothingly. "I was so worried about you. Are you okay?"

She answered with a kiss, capturing his lips hungrily. She held his head close, giving him no opportunity to pull back. He didn't mind and indulged her, comforting her in the way she desired. She drew back and bowed her head. "Now that you're here, I am but—where's Naminé?"

"That's what I want to know."

She gripped his shoulders tightly. It wasn't what she wanted to hear.

"I searched the whole house but you're the only one here," he informed.

She leaned into him, drawing strength from his warmth. He made her feel safe. "What's going on?"

He stroked her head tenderly, running stands of hair between his fingers. It was soft to touch. "I don't know. When I came here, the whole city was abandoned."

"What?" She shot a worried look. "What do you mean?"

He grabbed her hand and started pulling. "You'll see. All I know is that we're not safe here. We have to get out soon."

"Wait," she said, resisting his pull. "I want to check the news first." She walked over to the TV and turned it on.

White noise.

She quickly scrolled through the channels but got the same result. She spun around and her eyes settled on the computer. She switched on the monitor but a black screen appeared. It was the basic command line screen. An insertion point blinked in the corner. She pressed the "enter" key.

**Invalid command. **

**/user does not exist.**

No matter what she pressed, the same error message popped up.

"Nothing works. I've tried the radio and the cell phones too," Sora explained. "I think we should get out of here now."

She nodded and followed him out. They went down stairs into the living room when Kairi noticed the five portraits. Her body almost forgot to move from the shock. She couldn't dwell on it any further when he tugged, leading her through the front door.

It was still in the afternoon, but the sun had begun its downward descent. It would've been a normal day if it weren't for the thick columns of smoke rising from the town. Choppers, diminished by distance, buzzed above the islands. The streets were filled with abandoned vehicles and garbage littered the scene, but the worst part of it was the silence. They could only hear themselves.

"What happened? Where is everybody?" Kairi asked, fear creeping into her voice. How had so much happened overnight? The neighborhood was barely recognizable from yesterday.

Sora's attention was drawn to the Gaologu tree in the yard. Every time something bad occured, the tree was there. It had to be responsible.

"Sora?"

He was roused from his musing. "I think there's been an evacuation."

"For what?"

The constant questions were beginning to grate. He didn't know any more than she did. "I don't know, but we can't just stand here and think about it."

"Where do we go? Home?"

It was the most natural choice, but he wasn't so sure. If the trees really were responsible, home was the worst place to be. Considering that they were near a tree right now, he wanted nothing more than to get out quick. "Let's move. This place is giving me the creeps."

They moved down one block and stopped to think over the situation. Kairi sat on the curb while Sora paced back and forth on the sidewalk. He watched the choppers in the sky and kept track of their movements. Something was off about their flight pattern. They never moved closer or farther, it was like they were maintaining a perimeter. He thought back to the map and tried to calculate their location. He made a rough guess but determined that they were definitely outside the symbol's "zone." Perhaps everything inside the symbol's area was evacuated.

"I don't think we should go home," he declared ominously.

"Because of the tree?"

He gave her a surprised look.

She frowned, settling into a serious mood. "I've noticed it too, the Gaologu tree. It was also at Selphie's place. I did some research about it."

"What do you know?" he asked eagerly. He should've known that Kairi would look it up, it was too suspicious not to.

"I remember when I helped you with that essay; you showed me the comments from the teacher. That's when I decided to look into it. It's strange..."

"What is?"

She thought back to her online research. She wanted to confirm a few things about the teacher's comments, but the genealogy of the Gaologu tree was much more complex than she anticipated. There were still many mysteries to be solved. "When they reversed engineered the seeds, they could only grow it by using Paopu fruit as a base. They altered the structure and components of a Paopu fruit seed to resemble a Gaologu one. They ended up creating a hybrid fruit. It couldn't be grown naturally, so it was only cultivated in labs."

"They grew the fruit artificially?"

"That's right, they couldn't grow an authentic Gaologu tree, but the hybrid fruit was the first step in reviving the extinct species. Those fruits went to market, but for the trees themselves, they didn't exist, at least not until a decade ago."

"What happened?"

"After several iterations of the hybrid seed, they finally produced an original useable Gaologu seed. The thing about Gaologu trees is that they take a very long time to grow. Their maturity period is almost up to fifteen years. They don't start to bear fruit until after that."

"So that's why I never saw anything growing," he noted. Although they were only planted two years ago, they looked much older. Was it finally beginning to bear fruit? Was that the reason for everything?

"The trees in our neighborhood were planted as part of a beautification project, but it was sponsored by a private foundation. I looked over the member list and recognized one of the names," Kairi added.

"What was it?"

"Silas Xehanort, chairman of Destiny High Academy, the same man you saw in the study room, and the same man in the photo at Selphie's house."

"What?" he uttered in shock. "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"I only found last night when I was using the internet to keep myself awake." She stood up and crossed her arms. The news was troubling, to say the least.

"Is he still around?"

"That's the creepy part. Xehanort's been missing for thirty years. He just disappeared without a trace one day. With his stature, the police spent months looking for him, but he never showed up."

It was another piece of the puzzle, perhaps the most important one, but he had no idea how to tie it all together. If they shared all their pieces, then maybe… "There are some things I have to tell you. After Tidus disappeared, I checked out the tree in his backyard and saw the symbol," Sora began. "I started looking into the symbol online and read that Twilight Town was suffering from a lot of graffiti using the same design. I sent an email to Roxas about it and he told me about the Kupo message boards and how this guy sent him an email. I forgot what his name was since it was just a bunch of random letters, but I call him fastomax."

She quirked a brow at the strange nickname.

"I posted a topic on Kupo about our missing friends and I got a reply from the very same fastomax that responded to Roxas."

"What did it say?"

"He told me about a research project about something called the Gap. I'm not sure what it is, but they performed an experiment where they cut out all the senses of one guy; his eyes, nose, ears, and everything."

That last detail struck her. Where did she hear that before?

"Without all his senses, the test subject was able to access—I don't know—another dimension?"

"What?" It sounded ridiculous.

"It was called the Gap. The subject was able to connect to it. It's supposed to be a place of fear and chaos..." he trailed off.

Kairi found it hard to believe. "A place of fear and chaos? What exactly is it?"

"I don't know," he confessed, but his mind was working hard to connect the dots.

Was Xehanort a part of the "Gap" experiments? Was he trying to open up a gateway to the "Gap" using the symbol and Gaologu trees?

"Sora, was there anything weird about the email?" The part about removing senses couldn't be a coincidence, along with the user name being a jumble of random letters.

"Actually, Roxas brought up the same thing. Fastomax had a weird way of typing. He used really short sentences and didn't bother to capitalize either."

It was exactly like the email she received.

She had to get to the bottom of this. "Do you remember the day when we finally got together?"

How could he forget? It was one of the best days of his life. "What about it?"

"The reason I came to you that day was because...I was scared."

He knew she was, but he never figured out why.

"I received a strange email to my school account. I think it was...from Xion."

His eyes widened. That was impossible.

Her shoulders started shaking. "The message didn't mention her name but all the details seemed to match. She's either still alive or somebody knows about her. Since the Snatcher's dead, I don't know who could've sent it."

He was shaken by the news. To learn that the best day of his life was spurred by something so sinister, the thought made him sick. "What did it say?"

"Help me," she relayed. "Over and over. It said to meet her at the _secret place_."

The secret place was a cave on a small island off the coast that they used to play in. They discovered it by accident when they got lost in the woods. They claimed it for themselves and used it as their personal meeting spot. Riku told them a lot of scary stories there in the past, but after a harsh storm season, the island was cut off and restricted for years. They never bothered to come back since.

"That can't be right. Xion was never there. We started going to the secret place _after_ she disappeared, remember? It can't be her."

"But how did the message know—" She let out a sharp gasp. "The police never found the Snatcher's victims..."

The implication dawned on him. "Are you saying...?"

"We have to go there," she declared. "We can't go home now."

It was a catch-22. They seemed to have reached the same conclusion: there was probably something waiting for them at home, the same something that stole away their friends, but the secret place didn't sound much better. But it was out of the symbol's zone, and that alone was a good enough reason to go.

"Okay, let's go."

Their hands clasped together. Whatever awaited them at the secret place, they'd face it together.

Hand-in-hand, they ran through the city and towards the coast, encountering nothing but devastated scenery. They sailed past broken doors, shattered windows, and vacant car seats. He didn't see it before since he was driving earlier, but the symbols were everywhere now. It was painted on brick walls, pane glass, and concrete ground. It was pervasive, ubiquitous, and loud.

Kairi squeezed his hand and smiled. Her encouragement worked and he calmed down. He was grateful for the gesture. He couldn't crack now, not when he was with her.

The neighborhood streets thinned out and turned into tourist zones. Businesses, souvenir shops, and shopping plazas lined their path. They ran by Cait Sith's ice cream parlor and saw the big Moogle standing outside alone. It was stationary but...

He swore he saw a tail sticking out of its mouth.

He pushed the disturbing thought out of his mind and focused on Kairi's touch. She could always erase his anxiety.

The ocean scent finally hit them. The taste of salt lingered in the air. They were close. It was only a few more blocks to the pier. They were getting slower as the fatigue caught up to them. Their legs were burning but they continued to push. The sight of yellow sand urged them on. They were too close to stop now.

They finally made it.

They walked to the pier and found a rowboat. Sora fiddled with the knot that kept the boat from drifting away. After several tugs, he untied it and their ride was ready to go. Kairi was waiting with the oars in hand. He tossed the rope inside and scanned the coast. It was eerie seeing nobody on the beach on such a sunny day. If his mental map was right, they would be outside the symbol's area after rowing out.

"It's scary isn't?" Kairi remarked, eyes glazing over the lonely beach. "If you weren't here with me, I don't think I would be able to handle it."

"But I _am_ here," he reassured. "And I'm not going anywhere." He jumped into the boat and faced her. "You steer while I row."

He began pumping his arms, pushing the boat away from the pier. They acquired enough momentum to let the boat drift. Kairi took over for him after leaving shallow waters.

The small island had no official name but everybody called it Tiny Island since it paled in comparison to the major islands. Playgrounds were built and it served as a mini theme park, but a period of constant storms forced high maintenance costs, causing developers to abandon it. When it finally reopened years later, it wasn't under a private company, but as a public recreation zone. It was mainly for kids. Parents took their children there all the time. The rowboats were always supervised and the coast guard patrolled the area vigilantly—all of which were now missing.

They glided quietly, stuck in their own thoughts, preparing for the perils ahead. There was a lot to think about, but the enormity of the situation was impossible to comprehend alone. They rowed and rowed until...

They touched ground.

They jumped out of the boat once it was close enough to land. They dragged the rowboat inland until it was beached.

"That should be good," Sora observed.

They set out to find the cave entrance. The coast was the most developed part of Tiny Island. They had to go deep into the wild forest to find the secret place. The route from their memories emerged, guiding them towards the correct path. Isolated playgrounds and club houses soon turned into dense brush and tall trees.

"Was this it?" Sora wondered. The path was thicker and more overgrown than he remembered.

"Yeah," she answered, recognizing the setting. "It should come up soon." They fought through thick grass and ducked under branches. The deeper they went in, the quieter it got. The dense vegetation filtered out the sound of the ocean. The only noise was the soft crunch of their footsteps and the rustling of leaves.

The sound of rushing water hit their ears.

"The waterfall..." she recalled.

They traced the source of the sound to a stream. They followed it until they encountered a waterfall. It was ten meters high. Hard water rushed down the side of the rock face, foaming and bubbling at the bottom. Worn rocks formed a natural border around the pond. Misty clouds of vapor caught the light, making the air twinkle. Hidden behind the waterfall was the entrance to the secret place.

They carefully crossed over wet stones and entered. It was dark, dank, and deep inside. A long tunnel stretched into inky blackness.

"Was the secret place like this before?"

"No," Kairi answered. "There wasn't a tunnel; it was just a big room with a hole in the ceiling."

"That's what I thought," he echoed. The passage before them was not there before. Perhaps the storms carved out the tunnel? "We're going to need light." He recalled his experience in the apartment. "And cell phones aren't gonna work."

"Something like a torch?" she asked, looking around.

There wasn't much that could serve as a torch, but a glass object caught Sora's attention. He walked over and lifted it up, "How about a lantern?" It was of antique design, with a bulbous glass case and a candle stick. There was a latch on the base. He opened it and found extra candles and matches.

"It doesn't look too powerful," she commented.

He agreed, "But it's better than nothing."

"Why would it be here?" she asked. It was too convenient.

It was a good question, but he could only think of one answer:

"Somebody's expecting us." He struck a match and lit the lantern. It emitted a dim glow, but the wet reflective walls held the light well.

Kairi wrinkled her nose. A pungent musky smell hung heavily in the air. "It stinks in here."

"Let's go," he ordered, ignoring the comment. They ventured slowly since the lantern was weak. The deeper they moved in, the farther the entrance became. It got smaller and smaller until it was no more than a pinhead.

It disappeared.

Kairi held onto Sora as he led the way with his lantern. The jagged uneven surfaces cast spooky shadows. It didn't help that the candle flickered, making the shadows dance. Moisture collected and dripped from the ceiling, the sounds of droplets mixing in with their breathing. The noise echoed around and surrounded them.

"How you holding up?" Kairi asked, noting his heavy breathing.

"My arms are getting tired," he admitted.

"I'll hold it for awhile." She took the lantern off his hands.

Although it was only several minutes, it felt like hours. The repetitious stone walls made it hard to gauge their progress. No amount of weathering could extend the tunnel this far in such a short amount of time. They weren't geologists, but even they could tell that something was wrong with this tunnel. The color of the walls degraded severely, becoming darker and darker until it ate up the light.

"Stop," Sora ordered.

"What is it?"

"Can you move the light closer?" She swung the lantern next to the wall, illuminating the spot he was observing. The pattern was harsh, with intense striations and multiple layers bleeding together. It was as if somebody took charcoal and smeared it over the surface. "I'm not an expert or anything, but this does not look natural to me."

"You don't have to look at the wall to make that conclusion." She moved away to resume their trek but tripped over something. "**AH!**"

"What's wrong!" He ran over and his foot sent an object skidding across the floor. It made a heavy scratching sound. He ignored it for the moment and crouched beside her. She was on her knees. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She held up the light. "What was it?"

He took the lantern and put it low to examine the floor. He did a couple sweeps until he found it.

It was a shovel.

The same as Tidus'. The blade was rusty and caked with dried blood. He picked it up. "It's a shovel." He handed the lantern back to her.

"What's it doing here?" she replied, dusting her knees. She looked at the blade and almost dropped the light. "Is that blood?"

"Probably."

"You're going to bring it with you?" she asked incredulously.

"Yeah. We might need it." Whether it was for defense or digging, she didn't want to know.

They resumed their expedition. Sora would periodically turn around and check the path behind them. Their footsteps reverberated and repeated, making it sound like they were being followed. They stopped intermittently just to make sure.

Kairi shivered. "Is it just me or did it get colder?"

He idly tapped the shovel against the rocks. "Now that you bring it up, I don't feel the wind anymore." The air had gone stagnant. The knowledge made the air heavier than it really was, but it was compounded even more by the thick odor. It was a stringent and offensive smell. Staying still made it worse. He upped his pace but Kairi was rooted to her spot. "What's wrong?"

The darkness had covered it well, but she could still make out a vague silhouette on the ground.

It was Selphie's doll.

"Let's move on," she suggested, pretending that she didn't see it.

They continued their journey through the tunnel. Time had lost its consistency. The sound of a single footstep multiplied to many, bouncing off the walls, entering their skulls, and resounding infinitely. Vapor began to materialize when they exhaled. It was getting longer, colder, and more stressful. If they didn't find something soon, they might crack under the pressure.

The lantern dimmed.

The candle was almost out. It was just a wick sticking out from a pool of wax. Kairi set it down to replace the sputtering flame.

"Hurry up."

"I'm trying," she rebutted. She fumbled with the latch and got it to open, but the extra candles spilled out messily. "Crap."

"Don't rush it."

She picked up a candle and planned to light it with the faint flame. She opened the glass case.

The fire disappeared.

They were covered in darkness.

"What happened? Did it run out?"

"No..." she answered. "It was blown out."

"How—"

A sudden draft swept through the tunnel.

That was how.

"Where are you?" she asked. The complete darkness scared her. It was only Sora's voice that kept her calm.

"Stay where you are. I'll come to you."

She heard his shuffling. "Over here," she provided.

It helped. He soon bumped into her. "Give me your hand."

Their hands searched blindly for each other until they connected and linked together. "Thank goodness," she sighed.

Sora squeezed her hand comfortingly; in his other was the shovel. In complete darkness, a tiny sliver of light could become the sun. He squinted. "I think I see something." It was a small glimmer, but it was enough to ignite his hopes.

"Slow down. Remember your advice," she urged.

Don't rush it.

They treaded carefully, but with each inch, it became easier to see.

They finally arrived at their memories.

It was a large rocky room with a crooked hole in the ceiling. Sunlight powered through the roof, illuminating the space brilliantly. Was his memory fuzzy? Something was off about the place. It was an accurate imitation but the proportions were a little skewed. The ceilings were higher, the walls were wider, and everything seemed much bigger than in his memories.

"This is the secret place," Kairi whispered, setting down the lantern.

Sora checked the corners of the room. The natural sunlight bounced off the floor and illuminated every nook and cranny. It was the complete opposite of the tunnel. On the opposite wall, he noticed etchings. He moved in to take a closer look. They were childlike images scratched in by using rocks. "Did we make these?"

Kairi ran a hand over the rocky surface, willing her memories forth. "I'm not sure."

They looked over the etchings carefully. There was a sequence to them. The images were aligned from one side of the room to the other, rolling across from left to right. Despite the childish style, there was meaning behind it. They were simple pictorial depictions with vague humanoid shapes and strange objects.

"What do you think?" the brunet asked. He couldn't decipher these for the life of him.

Theories began to form in her head as she analyzed the drawings. "I think it describes a ritual."

"A ritual? Who do you think made these?

"I think they were made by a civilization from long ago, a sort of visual history," she proposed. She pointed to an image that depicted a group of figures. "This is the community. Watch how they're holding hands. In the next picture, a person is singled out." A figure was separated from the group.

"What for?"

"A sacrifice," she concluded. "If it wasn't for the emails, I wouldn't have figured it out. Look. It's the removal of the eyes, the nose, the ears, the tongue, and the other organs."

His eyes moved across, seeing the picture of a face gradually lose features like she described.

"It seems like the person dies after that," she observed.

"Why the sacrifice?"

"Look at this." The image displayed the community but surrounding them were inhuman shapes.

"Are those monsters?" He noticed something else about it too. There were "trees" between the people and the monsters. The parallels to the current reality were frightening. His eyes caught sight of another image. "What's this?" The carving showed a lone figure sitting down surrounded by mad swirls, scribbles, and zigzags.

"I don't know," she answered honestly. She didn't have much faith in her initial assessment either, but it was the best interpretation she could come up with.

Sora's eyes pored over the wall until he found it. It would be strange if he didn't.

It was the symbol.

Even in the context of these etchings, he still couldn't figure out anything. The drawings were more confusing than anything else. He backed up a few steps and stumbled, "Whoa!"

"Are you alright?"

He checked the floor and noticed a pale rock jutting from the ground.

No.

It wasn't a rock.

"I think I found something."

Kairi followed his line of sight to the ground. "Is that…?"

Sora propped his shovel. "It probably is." He stomped on the blade, forcing it deep into the earth.

Kairi watched anxiously as he dug.

He attacked the ground mercilessly, demolishing the surface with his sharp jabs, and hollowed out the earth. Dirt piled up from his constant digging. A skeletal arm began to emerge. It was an expected sight, but unsettling nonetheless.

"Were they—was she lying beneath us this entire time?"

He wasn't going to indulge her paranoia. It wouldn't help. He concentrated on digging. More dirt was piling up, and more bones were becoming exposed. The hole increased in size and depth until they unearthed what the police have tried to find for so long.

Remains.

They were bones.

They belonged to children.

They belonged to the Snatcher's victims.

Enough.

"Enough!" He threw the shovel away and fell back. The bodies were buried on top of each other. The skeletons were no longer held together by dirt. Pieces of bones and fragments piled up in one jumbled mess, a disheveled pile of bones. The lives of three children were reduced to nothing but a collection of calcium deposits.

Three skulls.

Three victims.

A possible fourth.

Xion.

He stared at the pile until he realized something.

He turned around to tell Kairi about his revelation but she wasn't there.

"Kairi?"

His eyes quickly searched the room.

"**KAIRI!**"

No.

NO!

He searched frantically for any sign of her. She was just there a moment ago! Where did she go?

"KAIRI! WHERE ARE YOU?" he shouted. He looked towards the entrance.

It was no longer there.

A solid wall of rock replaced it.

He was trapped.

Every time he turned, the walls seemed to move in closer and the ceiling seemed to lower. He saw the shovel, ran to it, and picked it up. He gripped it tightly in a defensive stance.

"_Ssshaa..hassss…" "Shaah…yash…" "Fesss…yeshhh…" "Shhooovv…" "Soooofff…saahh…"_

A frenzy of whispering erupted in his ear drums. Indistinct low voices and mumbling melded into a cacophony of incoherency.

"SHUT UP!"

"_Shahha…yoouu…" "Foou…shoouu…" "Shuu…shass…" Yussh…effvv…"_

He looked over his shoulder. The rocky walls…they were closing in. The whispering increased in intensity.

"**SHUT UP!**" he repeated.

He moved his legs, darting around the room, looking for any kind of recess or secret passage.

He found none.

"Kairi…" he whimpered.

The hole in the ceiling began to shrink and the light was dimming. The cave was getting darker and shadows were sneaking in.

He tossed the shovel aside and placed his hands on the walls, searching for some kind of escape. His fists pounded against the hard surface. "Not like this! Not like this!"

He pushed off and ran to the other side of the room but he tripped and fell into the grave. His body landed on the bones, sending the pieces flying. He spit out the dirt from his mouth and flipped his body over. He faced the ceiling and saw it, the last shred of light disappearing.

Plunging him into darkness.

He couldn't see anything.

But he could still hear the whispering.

It chipped at him, formed cracks in his constitution.

"MAKE IT STOP!"

It stopped.

The silence was even more unnerving.

He tried to get up.

But he couldn't.

Bony fingers clutched his limbs.

What was this?

Impossible!

It couldn't be?

"**NO!**"

He struggled, pulled, and kicked, but it was no use.

They wouldn't let go.

His breathing sped up.

His heart beat rapidly.

He was losing circulation.

His body going numb.

It couldn't end like this.

Not like this.

**NOT LIKE THIS!**

He froze.

A cold breath against his ear.

Paralyzed.

Crippled.

By total fear.

A soft whisper.

"…_save…_

…_yourself…" _


	30. yjr rmf

**HORRIFIC MURDERS SHOCK THE ISLANDS**

_Destiny Island Times_ – _9 hours ago_

Authorities have found seven bodies believed to be the missing high school students from last week. The bodies were found at the beach in a heavily mutilated state, leading investigators to conclude that the murders were "ritualistic" in nature. All victims underwent the same mutilation. In order to protect the ongoing investigation, police have not revealed specific details. The police are searching for any leads. If you have any information regarding this incident, please contact the police.

**Other Stories:**

_**Possible Terror Plot Raises Alert Level**_

_**Kupo Boards to Organize Mass Protests**_

_**Destiny Electric Working to Solve Blackout Problems  
><strong>_

_**Soft Curfew Instituted Amidst Public Safety Concerns**_

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><p>Leave a comment...<p>

**5056 comments**

**Popular Now | Newest | Oldest | Most Replied **

**fstomxr • yjr hs[ • 9 hours ago**

the world.

is over.

this is only the start.

nothing can no longer be done.

only thing left is.

save.

yourself.

**- 29 Replies**

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><p><strong>seriousbusiness80 • Traverse Town • 9 hours ago<strong>

Is it just me or does it feel like something big's happening right now? With all these murders, its hard to think they're not related somehow. Is there some kind of cult or something?

**- 11 Replies**

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><p><strong>downtownsliderz • Twilight Town • 8 hours ago<strong>

its not just destiny islands, its happened over here too. a week ago, three kids were also found dead, they were f***d up pretty bad

**- 3 Replies**

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><p><strong>greenyballinstripes • Twilight Town • 8 hours ago<strong>

i wonder if has somethin to do with the crazy drawings around town

**- 6 Replies**

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><p><strong>mooglemeister648 • Destiny Islands • 8 hours ago<strong>

OMG i kno those guys. 2 of them were dating too. what the hells going on here? i can't really beleive this is happenin…im startin to get scared now

**- 25 Replies**

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><p><strong>theoneandhonorable • Radiant Garden • 6 hours ago<strong>

I'm seeing a bunch of police on the streets. There's violence popping up everywhere. I don't know why, but people are starting to get restless

**- 16 Replies**

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><p><strong>walk_like_a_man • Radiant Garden • 5 hours ago<strong>

Im on the bus right now but were stopped. almost got into an accident. whats wrong with people? police arent letting us out either

**- 5 Replies**

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><p><strong>wickermanreturns • Traverse Town • 5 hours ago<strong>

sounds a lot like what happened over here. not only that, bu theres been a bunch of suicides

**- 32 Replies**

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><p><strong>starwarrior6782 • Radiant Garden • 4 hours ago<strong>

I JUST SAW TEN PEOPLE JUMP OFF THE BUILDING

**- 11 Replies**

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><p><strong>witchoftheeasternskies92 • Traverse Town • 4 hours ago<strong>

sucks for the victims but i notice yjsy dp,ryjomh erotf od js[[rmomh

**- 0 Replies**

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><p><strong>dragontamer97 • Destiny Islands • 4 hours ago<strong>

smunpfu r;dr rc[rtortormvr erotf yu[pd/

**- 0 Replies**

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><p><strong>shadowsniper78 • Radiant Garden • 3 hours ago<strong>

ypp ,smu rttptd o figured it out thr keunoard keepd shoftinh rihjt on thr krys

**- 0 Replies**

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><p><strong>Gotittogetherman63 • Twilight Town • 3 hours ago<strong>

diediedie diediedie diediedie diediedie diediedie diediedie diediedie diediedie diediedie diediedie diediedie diediedie **  
><strong>

**- 35 Replies**

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><p><strong>kp,syyp • dsmys sma • 2 hours ago<strong>

this isnt real this isnt real

THIS IS NOT HAPPENING

**- 0 Replies**

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><p><strong>(missing user) • (missing location) • 2 hours ago<strong>

Did you guys here about the riots in Twilight Town? The police are out in full force, what's gotten into them? They're going nuts over there!

**- 2 Replies**

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><p><strong>corr?upt d#ata str!ing • co&rr$upt da^ta st_ring • 1 hours ago**

jlkasss sssssss sssssssssss ssssssssss sssssssss sssss

10001236448892244

**- 0 Replies**

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><p>• • <strong>30 minutes ago<strong>

their tearin eachother up to pieces out there I dont know whats happenin anymore its just blood so much blood death everywhere death everywhere got to get HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY GO SLEEP GO SLEEP

**- 0 Replies**

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><p>• • <strong>10 minutes ago<strong>

everyones dead. everyones dead. everyones dead. everyones dead. everyones de

**- 0 Replies**

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><p><strong>darinze • the gap • 2 seconds ago<strong>

too late.

it is.

the end.

- **7 Replies**


	31. Wake Up

**Wake Up  
><strong>

Sora let out a long yawn, but was quickly alarmed, because there was something wrong, something he couldn't put his finger on.

He took a look around, many students he found, making clattering sounds, and to that he frowned.

Surrounded by chatter, they spoke of small matters; kept to himself he'd rather, and ignored the blather.

Accompanied with yells and shouts, blurry figures moved about, from his vision in and out, something strange seeded doubt.

Nagging in his mind, odd cues and subtle signs, too long was the time, thought cut short by the bell's chime.

His brain suddenly popped, and then everything stopped.

The world paused, emptiness filling the room, and without cause, the air heavy with gloom.

Everyone had disappeared, no trace behind, class completely cleared, nothing to find.

Outside a bleak sight, even darker than night, pitch black, a total absence of light.

A sudden transformation, the room inverted, material degradation, order perverted.

Ceiling lights flickered, wood and furniture decayed, to rot and wither, world in disarray.

Tar seeped into walls, dust rained the floors, spidery cracks crawled, and rattled the doors.

A bleak descent, his gut twisted and wrenched, rising stench and wretched scent, what had this meant?

Coldness gripped his heart, shivers wracked his shoulders, numbness spread to every part, and senses grew older.

His outlook turned grim, the empty room dimmed, and he alone stood, no one else but him.

What had madness wrought? Monsters and beasts, the imagination fraught, on his mind they feast.

Footsteps and growls, left no chance of escape, thumps and taps sound, against the senses they grate.

The unknown crept and walked, outside they waited, they watched and stalked, with strange noises they baited.

Unsteadily he rose, backed away on his toes, felt the touch of windows, turned around and froze.

His reflection terrible, hideous, flesh shredded to bone, image unbearable, demonic visage shown.

Eyes hollowed, deep and cavernous, existence swallowed by darkness ravenous.

The hinges shook, pulling his eyes away; to the door he looked, hoping terror at bay.

When the comfortable every day world ends, a new nightmare shall begin.


End file.
